OVP and the Metamorphosis of the Catholic Camp

The present article brings the systematical analysis concerning the development of the catholic camp (Lager) in Austria and foremost the situation of the political parties which represented this camp from the beginning of the party formation of Christian Social Party (1890s) until present. The analysis is based upon the concept of camps (Lagers) which is distinguished from the concepts of poles and pillars (Saule) First, there are examined the beginning of the catholic camp and catholic policy and the processes of formation of catholic milieu and its penetration in the dominant liberal society, politics and culture of the establishment in the Habsburg Monarchy. The catholic camp and its political party (Christian Socialist) were competing with the social democratic milieu in the difficult struggle for supremacy over the polity and politics during the Austrian First Republic. The creation of the authoritarian state is interpreted as in fact victory of the catholic camp and its political, culture and societal ideas. After six years of the German occupation, the Second Austrian Republic was created under the supervision of the Allies. Austria in the years 1945-1966 is described as almost pure example of the consociation democracy. The camp mentality and the deep-rooted cleavages dividing Austrian society were almost of the same intensity as in the pre-war era of the First Republic, but the behavior of political leaders was different determined by the ideas of cooperation and seeking of compromise. In this situation, Austrian People’s Party was successfully maintained its position of the leading political force of the organization within the catholic lager. In the years 1966-1970 there was ruling even the majority government composed only from the members of OVP. However, the Social Democrats took the initiative in the period 1970-1987 (in the years 1983-1897 in the coalition with the Austria’s Freedom Party). In detail there are examined the processes of dealignment, the reconfiguration and decline of existing cleavages and the rise of new societal divisions. These processes fragmented the traditional segmentation of Austrian society and they caused the erosion of the camp mentality and the camp milieu during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The classical electorate of the OVP was disintegrating and for the party it was very difficult to find ability to create new voters ties and alignments. The Austrian party system is no longer the bipartite one since the powers of three main actors (SPO, OVP, FPO) are almost equalized measured according to the election results. The OVP was forced back in the Austrian party competition with its rigid structure and not very advantageous ideological background and without the traditional camp alignments backing.