Austria Politics

Alexander here again bringing you your weekly dose of knowledge of politics of different countries, now for our next entry we go back to the old continent this time it's Austria turn, so let dive in.

Austrian politics takes place within the constitutional framework of a federal parliamentary republic, with a President (Bundespräsident) serving as head of state and a Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) as head of government. Governments, both local and federal, exercise executive power.

Federal legislative power is vested both in the Federal Government and in the two chambers of Parliament; the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat).

The Judiciary of Austria is independent of the executive and legislative branches of government.

 (Coat of arms of Austria)

Constitution.

Austria's constitution characterizes the republic as a federation consisting of nine autonomous federal states (Bundesländer). Both the federation and all its states have written constitutions defining them as republican entities governed according to the principles of representative democracy. Aside from the fact that the states of Austria lack an independent judiciary on the one hand and that their autonomy is largely notional on the other hand, Austria's government structure resembles that of larger federal republics such as Germany.  

Power branches.

Once more we reach the power branches, you already know what are the three branches here, we have seen them for the last 3 posts so let skip into them.

Executive branch.

Head of state.  

Austria's head of state is the Federal President (Bundespräsident), elected by popular vote for a term of six years and limited to two consecutive terms of office.

Head of Government

The Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) is appointed by the Federal President. Although he is head of government, he has no power to direct other members of the government.

Government

The federal cabinet consists of the Federal Chancellor appointed by the president and a number of ministers appointed by the president on the recommendation of the chancellor. The federal cabinet answers to the National Council and can be forced to resign through a motion of no confidence.

Legislative branch.

The Parliament of Austria (Parlament) consists of two chambers:

The National Council (Nationalrat) has 183 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation. It is the predominant one of the two chambers. 

The Federal Council (Bundesrat) currently consists of 62 members and is less powerful. Its members are selected by the state legislatures (Landtage). The apportionment of seats to the individual states is recalculated after each census. The power of the Federal Council is rather limited.

The Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung), which is formed by National Council and Federal Council in joint session, is largely a ceremonial institution. Its main responsibility is the swearing in of the Federal President.

Judicial branch.

The Judiciary of Austria (German: österreichische Justiz) is the branch of the Austrian government responsible for resolving disputes between residents or between residents and the government, holding criminals accountable, making sure that the legislative and executive branches remain faithful to the European and Austrian constitutions and to international human rights standards, and generally upholding the rule of law. The judiciary is independent of the other two branches of government and is committed to guaranteeing fair trials and equality before the law. It has broad and effective powers of judicial review. 

Parties.

Austria has a multi-party system. Of the over 1100 registered political parties, only few are known to the larger public. Since the 1980s, four parties have consistently received enough votes to get seats in the national parliament.  

There are five parties represented in the National Council. Three of the parties in the National Council are also represented in the Federal Council. Four of the five parties in the National Council are represented in the European Parliament.