Chapter 9 Austria: The role of the Länder in a centralised federal state

Abstract

Austria is a federal state. In the Austrian federal system, regions are embodied in nine provinces (hereafter Länder), which represent the intermediate level of governance between the Bund (hereafter Federation) and the Gemeinden, i.e. the local municipalities which possess the right of Selbstverwaltung (self-administration) and enjoy a certain amount of autonomy, as they are - within their autonomous sphere (eigener Wirkungsbereich) - not subject to instructions from the Federation or the Länder. With regard to those powers which are only delegated to the municipalities (übertragener Wirkungsbereich, assigned sphere of competence) by the Federation and the Länder, they can receive instructions both from the Federation and the Länder. As the municipalities are mere administrative bodies, they have, as opposed to the Federation and the Länder, no right to create legislation. Both the Federation and the Länder exercise legislative and administrative powers. With regard to legislation of the Federation, the Federal Parliament consists of two chambers: the Nationalrat (National Council) and the Bundesrat (Federal Council) - Art. 24 Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz (B-VG). The Nationalrat is directly elected by the people (Art. 26 B-VG: equal, direct, personal, free, secret elections) for a period of 5years (Art. 27 B-VG). The Members of the Bundesrat are elected by the Landtage (Länder Parliaments) based on the principle of proportional representation (Art.34 and 35 B-VG). In this way, the Bundesrat represents the participation of the Länder in the legislation of the Federation. The Members of the Bundesrat are elected after every general election of the Landtage so that the Bundesrat - in contrast to the Nationalrat - is never dissolved but only partially renewed. The Länder legislation is enacted by the Landtage; its members are elected by the Länder citizens with their main residence in the respective Land according to the same principles which are valid for the elections for the Nationalrat- Art. 95 B-VG. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.