Product Description: With its ambiguous mix of weak federalist and strong centralist elements, the Austrian constitutional architecture has been subject to conflicting interpretations and claims from its very beginning. The written 1920 constitution has been paralleled by informal rules and forces making up for the imbalance of power between national and subnational authorities...read more

Product Description: This inventive collection explores Austria's international position after the end of the Cold War. Austria joined the European Union in 1995 and aligned its foreign policy with the EU. Unlike its neighbors to the East, it did not join NATO but continued its policy of neutrality...read more

Product Description: Franz Vranitzky, the banker turned politician, was chancellor during the ten years (1986-96) when the world dramatically changed in the aftermath of the cold war. Among postwar chancellors, only Bruno Kreisky held office longer. The Austrian Social Democratic Party has been in power since 1970...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)