This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Parliament of Austria is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Parliament of Austria Österreichisches Parlament |
|
 |
|
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Type | Bicameral |
| Houses | Bundesrat Nationalrat |
| Leadership | |
| Structure | |
| Members | 245 |
| Election | |
| Meeting place | |
| Web site | |
| Austria |
This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Constitution
Executive
Parliament
Decentralized gov't
Foreign policy
|
|
Other countries · Atlas Politics portal |
In the Parliament of Austria (Österreichisches Parliament) is vested the legislative power of the Republic of Austria. The institution consists of two chambers,
- the National Council (Nationalrat) and
- the Federal Council (Bundesrat).
National Council
|
Federal Council
|
| Federal Assembly
(joint session of both houses) |
|
The National Council is composed of 183 members elected through proportional representation in a general election. This happens every five years, or earlier if the National Council prematurely moves for its own dissolution. The National Council is the dominant (albeit 'lower') house in the Austrian Parliament, and consequently the terms Parliament and National Council are commonly used synonymously.
The Federal Council is elected indirectly, through the provincial diets (Landtage) of the nine States of the Federal Republic. The states are represented in the Federal Council roughly in accordance to the size of their populations. Seats are redistributed among the states following each general census, and the overall size of the chamber is slightly variable as a result of this. The current Federal Council is composed of 62 delegates. With regard to most issues, the Federal Council only possesses a dilatory right of veto which can be overridden by the National Council. However, the Federal Council enjoys absolute veto powers over bills intended to alter the powers of either the states, or of the Federal Council itself.
The Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) is a body of mostly ceremonial function, consisting of the members of both houses of parliament. The Federal Assembly convenes only rarely, for instance to witness the inauguration of the Federal President. It might be noted, however, that under exceptional circumstances the Austrian constitution endows the Federal Assembly with significant responsibilities. An example of this would be its pivotal role in the hypothetic impeachment of a Federal President.
Both houses of parliament, as well as the Federal Assembly, convene in the Parliament building located on Vienna's Ringstraße.
See also
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 3 November 2008, at 10:46.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Parliament of Austria".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.