Austria is a landlocked country located in Central Europe and is bordered with eight different countries which are Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czechia (Czech Republic), Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Liechtenstein. The country’s capital city, Vienna is located in the country’s North-East with the Danube River running through it, the city has had a number of historically famous residents including Mozart, Strauss and Freud.
Note: Featured photo includes map from Google Maps and the flag is Public Domain, edited together.
Austria was once an Empire and was also a part of the German Confederation but it eventually became the Austro-Hungarian Empire until it eventually just became Austria after the 1st World War, thereafter it was briefly occupied by Nazi Germany during the 2nd World War, with no resistance and also quite welcomingly but of course it eventually once again became an independent nation after that. Many view the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo (in Bosnia & Herzegovina which used to be part of Austria-Hungary) as the springboard for the 1st World War. That is a very, very brief history of Austria in a nutshell.
Austria is today known by tourists for its mountain villages, baroque architecture, imperial history and Alpine terrain. Austria is a part of the European Union and its currency is the Euro like many (but not all) of the EU member states, previously they had their own currency called the Austrian schilling, as of typing this 1 Euro = 0.91 Pound Sterling and 1.11 US Dollars. As of 2017 Austria’s population was coming up to 8.800 million. Austria’s official language is German.
Government Type
Austria is a Federal Parliamentary Republic which has a President and Chancellor as its leaders. Since it is a federation of states, each state also has a degree of autonomy and local legislatures for control of local laws and affairs. Federal legislation is controlled by a bicameral federal parliament. The President is elected by the people in Presidential Elections and the Chancellor is appointed by the President based on the outcome of Parliamentary Elections.
The Executive Government
The Executive Government includes the President who is Head of State and the Chancellor who is Head of Government.
Although the role of the President is largely ceremonial, the position still has a number of executive powers that includes appointing the Chancellor from the largest party after Parliamentary Elections, the power to move government from Vienna to elsewhere under extraordinary circumstances. The President also dissolves parliament for parliamentary elections and can also convoke sessions of parliament, and has to if a vote from members demands it and the President can also set up a provisional government if needed and is in charge of executing orders/rulings of the country’s constitutional court. The President is also Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces. On advice from the Chancellor, the President appoints the Cabinet. The President also signs bills into law and can only not sign them into law if they break the constitution for example. The President also has a number of many smaller powers.
Outside of these limited powers the President can make proposals and suggestions but these can only come into force with a countersignature, such as from the Chancellor or a Minister, depending on what the proposal or suggestion is depends on the countersignature required and so the Presidents power is largely limited. The President can though dismiss the Chancellor, Ministers and government without a countersignature, but this would only be under extraordinary circumstances.
The Chancellor leads an appointed Cabinet which is in charge of government policy and its implementation. The Chancellor and Cabinet also handles foreign affairs and relations. It is the Chancellor’s job to keep the country informed of most affairs and announcements. The Chancellor also countersigns decisions from parliament and can also countersign (or refuse to countersign) any bills made by the President.
The Legislative Government
Austria has a Bicameral Parliament but the lower house, called the National Council has most of the legislative power with the upper house, called the Federal Council only really has power to veto legislation and decisions by the National Council, which in most cases can easily be overruled by the National Council, only certain legislation and decisions require the full approval of the Federal Council, such as to do with the constitution, laws relating to the Federal Council itself and treaties.
The National Council currently has 183 members which are elected by the people. A President and two deputies, called the 2nd and 3rd Presidents are elected by the National Council to overlook the National Council to make sure rules are followed, order is kept and to also determine the agenda. Basically, the National Council debates and votes on legislation, which is passed through the Federal Council and then signed into law.
The upper house, the Federal Council has 62 members which are elected by state legislatures. I have already highlighted above practically everything they can do.
Both houses under extraordinary circumstances can join together to make a Federal Assembly which can be used to bring the President to account and call a referendum for him to be removed from office and it can also declare war. The houses also join together to inaugurate the President.
The Electoral System
There are both Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Austria, Presidential elections are held every six years and Parliamentary elections happen every five years. The President can serve a max of two terms (12 years) in office.
Parliamentary elections only elect the members of the lower house, called the National Council. Currently the lower house has 183 members and this can change based on population changes of electoral districts. The way seats are allocated is through a fairly complex proportional representation method that includes the nine regional districts which is each of Austria’s states and local electoral districts which are within the regional districts and then above all of this is the federal level.
Votes are first counted in the local electoral districts, with most being multi-seat and the seats are given out by dividing the number of votes with the number of seats in the local district, so for example, 150,000 votes cast in a 5-seat district would require 30,000 votes for a candidate to win a seat, so if the party as a whole gets about 60k votes in that district they would be entitled to two seats. Any left-over votes from a local electoral district then influences filling remaining seats by adding up all left-over local district votes within a regional district and then finally if there are still seats to fill and more left-over votes, they are added up at the federal level and awarded from there, for parties to be eligible to win seats from the regional level they require at least 4% of the vote there and to win any further seats at the federal level a party again requires at least 4% of the total Federal level vote share.
Parties make separate member lists for local/regional and federal levels. The local/regional party list can be influenced by voters who put preference on candidates during voting and so the people have some control over what candidates win seats instead of it just being controlled entirely by the party and its members. After parliamentary elections the Chancellor is appointed by the President from the party which won the most seats.
The President is elected through popular vote using a two-round system where to win the 1st round outright a candidate requires at least 50% of the total vote, if not there is a 2nd round. Parties are able to stand an alternative candidate in the 2nd round. If there is only one candidate for a presidential election the electorate may be granted a referendum where they can accept or reject the candidate.
The upper house of parliament, the Federal Council, currently has 61 members but this can also change due to a proportional representation system when they are elected by local state legislatures, so the composition changes of local legislatures can cause a composition change in Federal council elections. Members serve 5-6-year terms.
To stand in a parliamentary election the candidate must be at least 16-years-old and have Austrian citizenship, while standing in a Presidential election requires the candidate to be at least 35-years-old and have Austrian citizenship. To vote requires Austrian citizenship and to be at least 16-years-old, anyone sentenced to 1-year or more jail time loses the right to vote until they have been out for at least 6 months where they will then be able to vote again.
Thank you for reading and I hope you learned something from this and/or enjoyed this blogpost. Next up will be the final A country… Azerbaijan.
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