Familienpolitische Maßnahmen in Österreich, Bulgarien und Ungarn. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft. 2003;32(4):417-27. Abstract
Familienpolitische Maßnahmen in Österreich, Bulgarien und Ungarn
Family policies in Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary – when viewed against the background of their different socioeconomic framework conditions – are based on concepts that are primarily geared to the family as a unity and not to the individual person. These concepts assign individual family members to different societal positions, contribute to a conservative restoration of the roles of women and men, and stabilize traditional gender hierarchies. Social spending cuts and the privatisation of services are even more precarious in the transformation countries, which are additionally burdened with the economic and social costs of system change, than in Austria. In none of the three countries, though, the social and family policy prerequisites for reconciling job and family obligations are satisfactorily fulfilled. An insufficient supply of public child care facilities is an important structural obstacle in this regard. A familialisation of women, in association with an idealisation of the mother role and private child care, tends to be one of the consequences. It should be noted that experiences from various countries show that it is not the amount of transfer benefits, but the opportunity for women to earn their own income in combination with a qualified public child care scheme and partnership-based family models that account for higher birth rates. Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria are still far away from any such solutions as formulated in Scandinavian family and social policy concepts.
National Identity in Austria : Towards an Analysis of its Constitution (In German). Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft. 1991;20(4):375-82. Abstract
National Identity in Austria : Towards an Analysis of its Constitution (In German)
Austrian national identity actually is in a process of reformulation, forced by the wish to participate in the European integration, i.e. the demand for membership in the European Community, and the transformation of Eastern Europe, that affects the political significance of its neutrality under new circumstances. At the same time, its long-lasting self-definition of the post-war-era as the "first victim" of Nazism has been brought to an end through the presidency of Waldheim and the scandalous affirmation of nazi-labour-policy by the leader of the oppositional Liberal Party. Jorg Haider, who was forced to retire from the position as a head of Karnten.Under these circumstances, the authors propose a change of perspectives in the (re)construction of an Austrian identity, consisting of: a revisited history of its constitution, which reflects different sources, from politics – for which a first draft on the importance of German nationalism and Austrian patriotism as political orientation-marks is given -, history and social sciences to literature and arts; the relation of the discourse on Austrian self-image and its image abroad – the article has an overview of the relevant studies – with the one on national identity; and an analysis on the importance of elements national culture in ordinary life and its impact on political culture in Austria.For this broader perspective on Austrian national identity, the authors propose a methodological approach through the experiences from similar studies on Switzerland and France and the instrument of ethnology and ethnomethodologie.