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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/6324 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Murphy, Anthony J. |
| Contributors | Housden, Martyn, Batonyi, Gabor |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, School of Social and International Studies |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, research masters, MPhil |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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