In the intensive week of this semester, first year students at the Political Economy MA program at Corvinus headed to Vienna on a two-day study tour, supported by the Pannónia Scholarship Program. They investigated the system of social partnership in Austria through the visits to the Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer) and to the Chamber of Workers and Employees (Arbeiterkammer). 

Social partnership is based on the principle of dialogue between interest groups and on the state’s openness to share policy space with them. It functions by relying on encompassing representative institutions, two of which are Arbeiterkammer and Wirtschaftskammer. The hosts at the two institutions led interactive seminars on their history, their functioning, and on the current challenges facing them. The study tour is an integral part of the Political Economy program that relies on comparative and historical methods, including the study of different models of capitalism. The study tour concluded with a visit to the Wien Museum.