How did the relation between Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and government develop during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, once governments had taken restrictive measures to lock down economic and public life? Austria is used as an example of a corporatist welfare state whereby collaboration between government and CSOs occurs particularly in the fields of social services, health-care, and youth. Our analysis focuses on the social service sector and differentiates between several social policy fields. We hereby analyze data from qualitative interviews with CEOs from 30 CSOs, four group discussions with another 30 representatives of CSOs, public agencies and authorities, and from a standardized questionnaire (n = 99 CSOs). We also utilize our own experiences as participant observers in meetings between CSOs and government. Results indicate that CSOs suffered financially partly due to a decrease in income, though mostly due to an increase in cost. In social services in particular, they also faced hardships caused by the need to reorganize operations and human resources, and by the increased demands of customers. Federal government took responsibility for supporting CSOs financially, though such support was hampered by unclear competencies in Austria’s multilayered federal system.

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COVID-19时代的伙伴关系：奥地利政府与民间社会

在COVID-19大流行的头几个月中，一旦政府采取限制性措施限制经济和公共生活，民间社会组织（CSO）与政府之间的关系如何发展？奥地利被用作社团主义福利国家的一个例子，在该福利国家中，政府与公民社会组织之间的合作尤其在社会服务，医疗保健和青年领域发生。我们的分析侧重于社会服务部门，并区分了几个社会政策领域。在此，我们分析了来自30个CSO的首席执行官的定性访谈，与另外30个CSO，公共机构和当局的代表进行的四次小组讨论以及来自标准化问卷（n = 99个CSO）的数据。我们还利用自己的经验作为民间组织与政府之间会议的观察员。结果表明，公民社会组织在财务上的损失部分是由于收入减少，尽管主要是由于成本增加。特别是在社会服务方面，他们还面临着因重组业务和人力资源以及客户需求增加而引起的困境。联邦政府负责在财政上支持公民社会组织，尽管奥地利多层联邦系统中权限不清阻碍了这种支持。