The Austrian case: multi-card concept and the relationship between citizen ID and social security cards

National electronic identity (e-ID) card schemes and electronic identitymanagement systems (e-IDMS) in Europe are characterised by considerablediversity. This contribution analyses the creation of a national e-IDMS in Austriawith the aim of improving our understanding of the reasons behind the genesis ofparticular designs of national e-IDMS. It seeks to explain how the system’s specificdesign evolved and which factors shaped its appearance. Being part of a comparativefour country study, a common theoretical framework is employed to allow for acomparison of national e-IDMS in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Spain. Itcombines the approach of actor-centred institutionalism and the concept of pathdependence in order to analyse the innovation process and to explain resulting keycharacteristics of the e-IDMS in Austria: a technology-neutral system with multipletokens; an ID model based on the Central Register of Residents; a privacy conceptusing sector-specific personal identifiers. It is shown that innovation process andoutcome are not only shaped by specific actor constellations dominated by strategice-government bodies, but also by path dependence at three levels: technological, institutional and organisational