The Dissolution of Political Charisma
A series of events since
1989, such as the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the opening up of Eastern
Europe, the Yugoslavian crisis in the 1990s and the Austrian membership of the
European Union since 1995 have contributed to an increase in the numbers of
immigrants entering Austria, leading to the emergence of a wider range of
ethnic communities. These events have gradually reinvented discourses about
immigration in contemporary Austria at national macro, and regional micro
structures of society. Differing opinions range from exclusionary discourses and
the rejection of ‘foreigners’, to multiculturalist and welcoming opinions
towards immigrants. In this respect, at the political level, depending on
different political party factions (such as, for example, the Austrian Social
Democratic Party or the Austrian Freedom party), discourses about immigration
issues range from the appreciation of cultural diversity and the perception of
foreigners as a useful tool for the labour market, to discourses about the ‘assimilation’ of immigrants. These political discourses arguably indicate
charismatic, bureaucratic or traditional forms of authority (according to Max
Weber’s three pure types of legitimate domination). Subsequently, actors of the unofficial everyday sphere might on
the one hand partly reduplicate opinions portrayed at the political levels of
society and legitimate those, or on the contrary, might partly form their
independent perceptions about immigration depending on their socio demographic
background.
This presentation aims to
compare patterns of discourse about immigration and migrants at the political
elite level to the ones portrayed by
regional everyday actors. In consequence it aims to outline the legitimation of
Austrian political parties and their form of ‘domination’ by the regional
actors.
Methodologically, the
research was based on a qualitative analysis of political manifestos,
parliamentary debates and qualitative semi structured interviews with 33
people.