The rise of the Austrian Freedom Party under Jörg Haider and Right Wing Populism in Austria 1986-2000. An historical and political study of Haider's FPO with a case-study giving a cultural perspective.

Abstract

The extraordinary political success achieved by the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) under the leadership of Jörg Haider during the 1990s is widely known as the ¿Haider Phenomenon¿ in academic literature. This thesis is a cultural-historical investigation into the roots of Haider¿s political breakthrough in Austrian politics during the 1990s. My aim has been to try to understand this political phenomenon in the context of Austrian cultural and historical forces and set out the political developments that enabled Haider (almost) to achieve the Austrian Chancellorship in 2000. There is already a considerable amount of scholarship available on this subject ¿ particularly in German. This thesis aims to enrich this scholarship by uncovering some previously neglected cultural-historical aspects relating to the rise of Haider. During my research, I found a rich vein of sources pointing to the centrality of Kultur in any understanding of political-historical developments in 20th century Austria. This is certainly the case in regards to Haider¿s FPÖ, which actually initiated a Kulturkampf as part of their populist political strategy in the 1990s. This study will also add to the body of work about the growth of right wing populism throughout Europe in the last twenty years. More importantly however, my thesis highlights the importance of focusing on local and country-specific aspects of such a political phenomenon in order to explain the causes of its success. Otherwise, there is a danger of superficial or generalized conclusions being made that distract from a deeper comprehension of events.