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National Council of Austria
 
 
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The National Council is one of the two houses of the Federal Assembly of Austria
Federal Assembly of Austria

The Federal Assembly is the name given to a formal joint-session of the two houses of the Austrian federation parliament, the National Council of Austria and the Federal Council of Austria....
, the bicameral
Bicameralism

In government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....
 federal
Federation

A federation is a Political union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the state is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a Unilateralism decision of the central government....
 parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
 of Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
. According to the constitution
Politics of Austria

The Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federation parliamentary system representative democracy republic, with a Chancellor of Austria as the head of government, and a President of Austria as head of state....
, the National Council and the complementary Federal Council
Federal Council of Austria

The Federal Council of Austria or Bundesrat is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Austria.The 62 members of the Federal Council are elected by each of the legislatures of the states of Austria for 4- to 6-year terms....
 are peers. As a practical matter, the National Council is decidedly more powerful.

National Council is where Austria's federal legislative
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
 authority is concentrated; for a bill to become federal law, it must be resolved upon by this chamber.






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The National Council is one of the two houses of the Federal Assembly of Austria
Federal Assembly of Austria

The Federal Assembly is the name given to a formal joint-session of the two houses of the Austrian federation parliament, the National Council of Austria and the Federal Council of Austria....
, the bicameral
Bicameralism

In government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....
 federal
Federation

A federation is a Political union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the state is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a Unilateralism decision of the central government....
 parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
 of Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
. According to the constitution
Politics of Austria

The Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federation parliamentary system representative democracy republic, with a Chancellor of Austria as the head of government, and a President of Austria as head of state....
, the National Council and the complementary Federal Council
Federal Council of Austria

The Federal Council of Austria or Bundesrat is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Austria.The 62 members of the Federal Council are elected by each of the legislatures of the states of Austria for 4- to 6-year terms....
 are peers. As a practical matter, the National Council is decidedly more powerful.

Responsibilities

The National Council is where Austria's federal legislative
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
 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 one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Austria.The 62 members of the Federal Council are elected by each of the legislatures of the states of Austria for 4- to 6-year terms....
 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

In law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group. Ordinarily, this is a majority of the people expected to be there, although many bodies may have a lower or 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
Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations.Constitutions are the framework for government and may limit or define the authority and procedure of political bodies to execute new laws and regulations....
, bills curtailing the rights of Austria's member states
States of Austria

Austria is a federation made up of nine State , known in German language as L?nder . Since Land is also the German word for "country", the term Bundesl?nder is often used instead to avoid ambiguity....
, 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 any 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 federation parliament, the National Council of Austria and the Federal Council of Austria....
 to be exercised. For example, motions to impeach
Impeachment

Impeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to consider whether or not to forcibly remove a government official from office....
 the President, motions to call for a referendum
Referendum

A referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire Constituency is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal....
 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 performative speech act or signing of a document by an authorised party of a government in order to initiate a state of war between two or more nations....
 all need a two-thirds majority in the National Council.

Elections


The 183 members of the National Council are elected by nation-wide popular vote for a term of five years; each Austrian sixteen years or older on the day the election takes place is entitled to one vote. National Council elections are general election
General election

A general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are up for election. 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....
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 multiple-winner elections ....
, 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 Austria
    States of Austria

    Austria is a federation made up of nine State , known in German language as L?nder . Since Land is also the German word for "country", the term Bundesl?nder is often used instead to avoid ambiguity....
    . 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 gerrymandering
    Gerrymandering

    Gerrymandering is a form of Redistribution in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral advantage....
     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 method
    D'Hondt method

    The D'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method is named after Belgium mathematician Victor D'Hondt....
     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 democracy
Presidential 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 wikt:accountable and which cannot, in normal circumstances, wikt:dismiss it....
: the executive
Executive (government)

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 branch of government is supposed to be headed by the president
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, 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)

Alternative meaning: Constitutional convention A constitutional convention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state....
 prevents this power from being exercised. Austria accordingly functions as a parliamentary democracy
Parliamentary system

Parliamentary systems are characterized by no clear-cut separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, leading to a different set of checks and balances compared to those found in presidential systems....
: 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 federation parliamentary system representative democracy republic, with a Chancellor of Austria as the head of government, and a President of Austria as head of state....
 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.

Latest election


Make-up of the National Council

























































































































































































































































































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Party Members
  SPÖ
Social Democratic Party of Austria

The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest parties in Austria. The SP? is one of the major parties in Austria and has particularly strong ties to labor unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour ....
 57
  ÖVP
Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democracy and conservatism party in Austria. A successor to the 19th-century Austrian Christian Social Party , 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 national conservatism list of political parties in Austria. Its current leader is Heinz-Christian Strache. The party sees its roots in the "freedom values" of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas....
 34
  BZÖ
Alliance for the Future of Austria

The Alliance for the Future of Austria is a national conservatism list of political parties in Austria which was led by one of its founders J?rg Haider until his death on October 11, 2008....
 21
  Grüne 20
 Total
 183




Elections


See also

  • List of Presidents of the National Council of Austria
    List of Presidents of the National Council of Austria

    List of Presidents of the National Council of Austria.Below is a list of office-holders in the First Republic:Below is a list of office-holders in the Second Republic:...


External links

  • , as explained by the Austrian parliament itself
  • , official rules and regulations (in German)