National Council of Austria
Encyclopedia
The National Council is one of the two houses of the Austrian parliament
. According to the constitution
, the National Council and the complementary Federal Council
are peers. As a practical matter, the National Council is decidedly more powerful, though it is frequently described as the lower house.
authority is concentrated; for a bill to become federal law, it must be resolved upon by this chamber. Bills passed by the National Council are sent to the Federal Council
for corroboration. If the Federal Council approves of the bill or simply does nothing for eight weeks, the bill has succeeded. If the Federal Council vetoes the bill, the National Council may still force it into law by essentially just passing it again; a National Council resolution overruling a Federal Council objection merely has to meet a higher quorum
than a regular resolution. In other words, the Federal Council does not have any real power to prevent adoption of legislation, the National Council being trivially able to override it. There are three exceptions to this rule: bills amending constitutional law
, bills curtailing the rights of Austria's member states
, and bills pertaining to the organization of the legislature itself cannot be forced into law against Federal Council opposition.
The approval of the National Council is also required for most of the prerogatives of the Federal Assembly
to be exercised. For example, motions to call for a referendum
aimed at having the President removed from office by the electorate, and motions to declare war
all need a two-thirds majority in the National Council. Only motions to impeach
the President can also be from the Federal Council.
s. The voting system aims at party-list proportional representation
, uses partially open lists
, and is relatively straightforward:
In addition to voting for a party list, voters may express preference for one individual candidate. A candidate receiving sufficiently many personal votes can rise in rank on his or her district party list; voters thus have a certain degree of influence as to which particular individual wins which particular seat. It is not possible, however, to simultaneously vote for party X but exert influence on the candidate rankings on the party list of party Y.
: the executive
branch of government is supposed to be headed by the president
and not to be answerable to the legislative branch. In practice, however, Austria's federal administration as such has comparatively little scope and would be almost totally paralyzed should the National Council fail to support it. While the executive branch has the theoretical authority to dissolve a hostile National Council, constitutional convention
prevents this power from being exercised. Austria accordingly functions as a parliamentary democracy
: for all intents and purposes, the cabinet is subject to approval by the National Council, the president being little more than a figurehead.
A related discrepancy
between Austrian constitutional theory and Austrian political practice is that the constitution defines the President of the National Council to be Austria's second highest public official, junior only to the president proper. As a practical matter, the President of the National Council is a representative of rather moderate significance: wielding less power than the president by extension means wielding less power than the head of cabinet or even most federal ministers. The President of the National Council thus serves mostly as a more or less nonpartisan moderator of parliamentary debate.
Parliament of Austria
In the Parliament of Austria is vested the legislative power of the Republic of Austria. The institution consists of two chambers,* the National Council and* the Federal Council ....
. According to the constitution
Politics of Austria
The Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a Federal Chancellor as the head of government, and a Federal President as head of state. Executive power is exercised by the governments, both local and federal...
, the National Council and the complementary Federal Council
Federal Council of Austria
The Federal Council of Austria or Bundesrat is the second chamber of the Austrian parliament, representing the nine States of Austria on federal level. As part of a bicameral legislature alongside of the National Council of Austria , it can be compared with an upper house or a senate...
are peers. As a practical matter, the National Council is decidedly more powerful, though it is frequently described as the lower house.
Responsibilities
The National Council is where Austria's federal legislativeLegislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
authority is concentrated; for a bill to become federal law, it must be resolved upon by this chamber. Bills passed by the National Council are sent to the Federal Council
Federal Council of Austria
The Federal Council of Austria or Bundesrat is the second chamber of the Austrian parliament, representing the nine States of Austria on federal level. As part of a bicameral legislature alongside of the National Council of Austria , it can be compared with an upper house or a senate...
for corroboration. If the Federal Council approves of the bill or simply does nothing for eight weeks, the bill has succeeded. If the Federal Council vetoes the bill, the National Council may still force it into law by essentially just passing it again; a National Council resolution overruling a Federal Council objection merely has to meet a higher quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
than a regular resolution. In other words, the Federal Council does not have any real power to prevent adoption of legislation, the National Council being trivially able to override it. There are three exceptions to this rule: bills amending constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
, bills curtailing the rights of Austria's member states
States of Austria
Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder . Since Land is also the German word for a country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms...
, and bills pertaining to the organization of the legislature itself cannot be forced into law against Federal Council opposition.
The approval of the National Council is also required for most of the prerogatives of the Federal Assembly
Federal Assembly of Austria
The Federal Assembly is the name given to a formal joint session of the two houses of the Austrian federal parliament, the National Council and the Federal Council....
to be exercised. For example, motions to call for a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
aimed at having the President removed from office by the electorate, and motions to declare war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
all need a two-thirds majority in the National Council. Only motions to impeach
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
the President can also be from the Federal Council.
Elections
The 183 members of the National Council are elected by nation-wide popular vote for a term of four years; each Austrian sixteen years or older on the day the election takes place is entitled to one vote. National Council elections are general electionGeneral election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
s. The voting system aims at party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
, uses partially open lists
Open list
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected...
, and is relatively straightforward:
- For the purpose of National Council elections, Austria is divided into nine regional electoral districts corresponding to the nine states of AustriaStates of AustriaAustria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder . Since Land is also the German word for a country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms...
. The nine regional electoral districts are subdivided into a total of 43 local electoral districts. Political parties submit separate ranked lists of candidates for each district, regional or local, in which they have chosen to run. They also submit a federal-level list. - Votes cast are first counted within their local electoral districts. Since there are 43 local districts but 183 seats to fill, local districts will typically have more than one seat assigned to them. The number of seats assigned to each local district is based solely on electoral district population, as established by the most recent census; the partitioning and apportionment rules are simple enough to prevent gerrymanderingGerrymanderingIn the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...
from becoming an issue. The number of votes required to win one seat is simply the number of votes divided by the number of seats assigned to the district in question. For example, if 150,000 votes are cast in your five-seat local district, 30,000 votes win one seat. If your party has scored 61,000 votes out of the 150,000 votes cast, your party is entitled to two seats, to be taken by the first two candidates on your party's local district list. Since 60,000 votes would have been sufficient to win two seats, 1000 votes are left unaccounted for by this first round of tallying. - Any vote not accounted for on the local level is dealt with on the regional level, provided that the party it has been cast for has obtained at least four percent of the regional total vote. The system is analogous to that used on the district level; the number of seats assigned to a regional district is simply the number of seats assigned to one of its constituent local districts but not filled during the first round of tallying.
- Any vote not accounted for on the regional level either is dealt with on the federal level, provided that the party it has been cast for has obtained at least four percent of the federal total vote. The D'Hondt methodD'Hondt methodThe d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
is used to allocate any National Council seats remaining to be filled.
In addition to voting for a party list, voters may express preference for one individual candidate. A candidate receiving sufficiently many personal votes can rise in rank on his or her district party list; voters thus have a certain degree of influence as to which particular individual wins which particular seat. It is not possible, however, to simultaneously vote for party X but exert influence on the candidate rankings on the party list of party Y.
Peculiarities
Austria's federal constitution defines Austria to be a presidential democracyPresidential system
A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not responsible and which cannot, in normal circumstances, dismiss it....
: the executive
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
branch of government is supposed to be headed by the president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and not to be answerable to the legislative branch. In practice, however, Austria's federal administration as such has comparatively little scope and would be almost totally paralyzed should the National Council fail to support it. While the executive branch has the theoretical authority to dissolve a hostile National Council, constitutional convention
Constitutional convention (political custom)
A constitutional convention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state. In some states, notably those Commonwealth of Nations states that follow the Westminster system and whose political systems derive from British constitutional law, most...
prevents this power from being exercised. Austria accordingly functions as a parliamentary democracy
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
: for all intents and purposes, the cabinet is subject to approval by the National Council, the president being little more than a figurehead.
A related discrepancy
Politics of Austria
The Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a Federal Chancellor as the head of government, and a Federal President as head of state. Executive power is exercised by the governments, both local and federal...
between Austrian constitutional theory and Austrian political practice is that the constitution defines the President of the National Council to be Austria's second highest public official, junior only to the president proper. As a practical matter, the President of the National Council is a representative of rather moderate significance: wielding less power than the president by extension means wielding less power than the head of cabinet or even most federal ministers. The President of the National Council thus serves mostly as a more or less nonpartisan moderator of parliamentary debate.
Make-up of the National Council
| Party | Members |
|
| SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved... |
57 | |
| ÖVP Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology... |
51 | |
| FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had... |
34 | |
| Grüne | 20 | |
| BZÖ Alliance for the Future of Austria The Alliance for the Future of Austria , abbreviated to BZÖ, is a conservative liberal political party in Austria. The party has sixteen seats in the National Council.... |
17 | |
| FPK Freedom Party in Carinthia The Freedomites in Carinthia is a far right political party in Austria, operating in the federal state of Carinthia. Historically, it has been shaped by Jörg Haider... |
3 | |
| Independent Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
1 | |
| Total |
183 | |
External links
- Official website
- National Council Elections Statute, official rules and regulations (in German)