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34-791: Its full title is "Treaty for the re-establishment of an independent and democratic Austria, signed in Vienna on 15 May 1955" (German: Staatsvertrag betreffend die Wiederherstellung eines unabhängigen und demokratischen Österreich, unterzeichnet in Wien am 15. Mai ). The treaty re-established a free , sovereign and democratic Austria . The basis for the treaty was the Moscow Declaration of 30 October 1943. The agreement and its annexes provided for Soviet oilfield concessions and property rights of oil refineries in Eastern Austria and

68-420: A "totalitarian state" coalesced where "liberty has been suppressed in the name of liberty." Social anarchists see negative and positive liberty as complementary concepts of freedom. Such a view of rights may require utilitarian trade-offs, such as sacrificing the right to the product of one's labor or freedom of association for less racial discrimination or more subsidies for housing. Social anarchists describe

102-479: A conflict between the will and the self. Similarly, the idea of freedom as freedom from politics is a notion that developed in modern times. This is opposed to the idea of freedom as the capacity to "begin anew", which Arendt sees as a corollary to the innate human condition of natality, or our nature as "new beginnings and hence beginners". In Arendt's view, political action is an interruption of automatic process, either natural or historical. The freedom to begin anew

136-430: A country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities." Gerald C. MacCallum Jr. spoke of a compromise between positive and negative freedoms, saying that an agent must have full autonomy over themselves. In this view, freedom is a triadic relationship because it is about three things, namely the agent, the constraints they need to be free from and the goal they are aspiring to. Hannah Arendt traces

170-406: A national law sets 12 paid public holidays . If a worker works on a public holiday, they are to be paid 1.5 times their regular rate of pay and be given another alternate day off. Sabie Marschall argues that the revised set of public holidays in post-Apartheid South Africa attempts to produce and celebrate a particular national identity in line with the political goal of the rainbow nation . In

204-596: A non-working day when the official arms of government such as the court system are closed. In federal states there may also be different holidays for the constituent states or provinces, as in the United States where holidays that were established by the federal government are called federal holidays . Such days may or may not be counted in calculating the statute of limitations in legal actions and are usually days when non-custodial parents are given alternating visitation or access to their children from

238-727: A prior marriage or relationship according to a parenting schedule. The term may also be used to distinguish between days that may be celebrated as secular holidays rather than religious holidays such as the celebration of New Year's Day on January 1 ( Gregorian calendar ) and January 14 ( Julian Calendar ) in certain eastern Orthodox Christian countries such as Russia . In the British Isles, bank holiday are days established as public holidays in statute law. In England and Wales, Good Friday and Christmas Day are known as common law holidays, as they have been celebrated by custom since time immemorial. Bank holidays were introduced in

272-522: A result (e.g. housing, education, medical services and so on) produced by people is in effect a purported right to enslave others. Political philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre theorized freedom in terms of our social interdependence with other people. Economist Milton Friedman argues in his book Capitalism and Freedom that there are two types of freedom, namely political freedom and economic freedom , and that without economic freedom there cannot be political freedom. A study on 123 nations shows that

306-475: A year , Nepal is the country with the highest number of public holidays but it observes six working days a week. India ranks second with 21 national holidays, followed by Colombia and the Philippines at 18 each. Likewise, Japan , China and Hong Kong enjoy 17 public breaks a year. Some countries (e.g. Cambodia) with a longer, six-day workweek, have more holidays (28) to compensate. In New Zealand,

340-651: Is actually not in the original text of the treaty but was declared by parliament on 26 October 1955, after the last Allied troops were to leave Austria according to the treaty. As a result of the treaty the Allies left Austrian territory on 25 October 1955. 26 October came to be celebrated as a national holiday (called the Day of the Flag until 1965). It is sometimes thought to commemorate the withdrawal of Allied troops, but in fact celebrates Austria's Declaration of Neutrality , which

374-399: Is closely connected with the concepts of civil liberties and human rights , which in democratic societies are usually afforded legal protection from the state . Various groups along the political spectrum hold different views about what they believe constitutes political freedom. Left-wing political philosophy generally couples the notion of freedom with that of positive liberty or

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408-575: Is no such thing, for instance, as freedom to pollute or freedom to deforest given that such activities create negative externalities , which violates other groups' liberty to not be exposed to pollution. The popularity of SUVs , golf and urban sprawl has been used as evidence that some ideas of freedom and ecological conservation can clash. This leads at times to serious confrontations and clashes of values reflected in advertising campaigns, e.g. that of PETA regarding fur . John Dalberg-Acton stated: "The most certain test by which we judge whether

442-415: Is thus an extension of "the freedom to call something into being which did not exist before, which was not given, not even as an object of cognition or imagination, and which therefore, strictly speaking, could not be known". Public holiday A public holiday , national holiday , federal holiday , statutory holiday , bank holiday or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and

476-424: Is usually a non-working day during the year. A civic holiday , also known as a civil holiday or work holiday , is a day that is legally recognized and celebrated as a holiday in a particular sovereign state or jurisdictional subdivision of such, e.g., a state or a province . It is usually a day that the legislature , parliament , congress or sovereign has declared by statute , edict or decree as

510-634: The Slovene and Croat minorities were also expressly detailed. Anschluss (Austria's political union with Germany ), as had happened in 1938, was forbidden (German recognition of Austria's sovereignty and independence and renunciation by Germany of territorial claims over Austria were later covered in general terms in the 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany about existing borders, but not specifically). Nazi and fascist organisations were prohibited. Austrian neutrality

544-544: The Allies wanted to see a peace treaty with Germany first. A treaty became less likely with the development of the Cold War . However, Austria successfully held its part of Carinthia against the demands of a resurgent Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia , even though the issue of potential reunification with South Tyrol , annexed by Italy from Austria-Hungary in 1919, was not addressed. The climate for negotiations improved with Joseph Stalin 's death in 1953 and

578-708: The Hayek–Friedman hypothesis of the necessity of economic freedom for political freedom holds well. Only in few cases, there was relatively high political freedom without high economic freedom, and even those cases diminished over time. A later study found just one clear counter-example, Belarus after 1991, and its freedom was lost over time. In his article "Why the Market Subverts Democracy", Robin Hahnel takes issue with Friedman's concept of economic freedom, asserting that there will be infringements on

612-522: The United States, there is no national law requiring that employers pay employees who do not work on public holidays (although the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts have paid holiday laws). Some public holidays are controversial. For example, in the United States a federal holiday commemorates explorer Christopher Columbus , who is said to have discovered the Americas by Europeans. This has led to protests at Columbus Day parades and calls for

646-407: The aim of "securing individual freedom", because it permitted a possible "identification of freedom with power." The subsequent "collective power over circumstances" misappropriated "the physical 'ability to do what I want', the power to satisfy our wishes, or the extent of the choice of alternatives open to us." Hayek maintained that once any possible "identification of freedom with power is admitted,"

680-618: The central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council . Whereas Germany was divided into East and West Germany in 1949, Austria remained under joint occupation of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union until 1955; its status became a controversial subject in the Cold War . First attempts to negotiate a treaty were made by the first post-war government. However, they failed because

714-484: The conceptual origins of freedom to ancient Greek politics. According to her study, the concept of freedom was historically inseparable from political action. Politics could only be practiced by those who had freed themselves from the necessities of life so that they could participate in the realm of political affairs. According to Arendt, the concept of freedom became associated with the Christian notion of freedom of

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748-494: The enabling of a group or individual to determine their own life or realize their own potential. In this sense, freedom may include freedom from poverty, starvation, treatable disease, and oppression as well as freedom from force and coercion, from whomever they may issue. According to neoliberal philosopher and economist Friedrich Hayek , the "socialist argument" defined "individual liberty" as " 'freedom from' obstacles". He argued that this definition only "confused" and obscured

782-422: The freedom of others whenever anyone exercises their own economic freedom. He argues that such infringements produce conflicts that are resolved through property rights systems, and therefore it is essential to decide what is a better or a worse property rights system, yet Friedman simply takes for granted the existing property rights and does not question them. Political philosopher Nikolas Kompridis posits that

816-594: The fulfillment of enabling conditions, or the absence of life conditions of compulsion, e.g. economic compulsion, in a society. Although political freedom is often interpreted negatively as the freedom from unreasonable external constraints on action, it can also refer to the positive exercise of rights, capacities and possibilities for action and the exercise of social or group rights. The concept can also include freedom from internal constraints on political action or speech (e.g. social conformity , consistency, or inauthentic behaviour). The concept of political freedom

850-473: The late 19th century to extend the labour rights citizens have on common law holidays to four additional days. The major social function of public holidays is the co-ordination of leisure time. This co-ordination has costs, such as congestion and overcrowding (in leisure facilities, on transport systems) and benefits (easier for people to arrange social occasions). Public holidays constitute an important part of nation building and become important symbols of

884-698: The nation. They can build and legitimise the nation and are intended to foster national unity, social cohesion and popular identification. They provide national governments with annual opportunities to reinforce the status of the nation. Sabine Marschall argues that public holidays can be regarded as sites of memory , which preserve particular representations of historical events and particular national or public heroes. In some countries, there are national laws that make some or all public holidays paid holidays, and in other countries, there are no such laws , though many firms provide days off as paid or unpaid holidays. They vary by country and may vary by year. With 36 days

918-501: The negative liberty-centric view endorsed by capitalism as "selfish freedom". Anarcho-capitalists see negative rights as a consistent system. Ayn Rand described it as "a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man's freedom of action in a social context". To such libertarians, positive liberty is contradictory since so-called rights must be traded off against each other, debasing legitimate rights which by definition trump other moral considerations. Any alleged right which calls for

952-509: The public holiday to be changed. Some states have adopted the day as Indigenous People's Day rather than Columbus Day. Similarly, Australia day commemorates the day when the First Fleet first arrived in the country on 26 January 1788 at Sydney Cove . This has also led to protests, with some Australians seeing the date as a symbol of the beginning of European oppression towards the indigenous population . The holiday has since garnered

986-699: The pursuit of freedom in the modern era can be broadly divided into two motivating ideals, namely freedom as autonomy or independence and freedom as the ability to cooperatively initiate a new beginning. Political freedom has also been theorized in its opposition to and a condition of power relations, or the power of action upon actions, by Michel Foucault . It has also been closely identified with certain kinds of artistic and cultural practice by Cornelius Castoriadis , Antonio Gramsci , Herbert Marcuse , Jacques Rancière and Theodor Adorno . Environmentalists often argue that political freedoms should include some constraint on use of ecosystems . They maintain there

1020-768: The transfer of the assets of the Danube Shipping Company to the USSR. After the Anschluss in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany . In 1943, however, the Allies agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that Austria would instead be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression —without denying Austria's role in Nazi crimes—and treated as a liberated and independent country after

1054-704: The war. In the immediate aftermath of World War II , the Allied occupation of Austria started on 27 April 1945 when Austria under Allied control claimed independence from Germany as a result of the Vienna Offensive . Austria was divided into four zones and jointly occupied by the United Kingdom , the Soviet Union , the United States , and France . Vienna was similarly subdivided, but

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1088-646: The warming of relations known as the Khrushchev Thaw . Negotiations with the Soviet foreign minister, Molotov, secured the breakthrough in February 1955. After Austrian promises of perpetual neutrality, Austria was accorded full independence on 15 May 1955, and the last occupation troops left on 25 October that year. As well as general regulations and recognition of the Austrian state, the minority rights of

1122-399: The will , or inner freedom, around the 5th century CE and since then freedom as a form of political action has been neglected even though, as she says, freedom is "the raison d'être of politics". Arendt says that political freedom is historically opposed to sovereignty or will-power since in ancient Greece and Rome the concept of freedom was inseparable from performance and did not arise as

1156-403: Was passed on 26 October 1955. Freedom (political) Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency ) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies. Political freedom has been described as freedom from oppression or coercion, the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and

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