Federations of the World

Federation Maps and Fact Sheets

Austria
A Federal constitution adopted in 1920
Official Website of the federal government of Austria (German)

Constituent units

• 9 provinces (Bundesländer): Burgenland; Carinthia; Lower Austria; Salzburg; Styria; Tyrol; Upper Austria; Vienna; Vorarlberg.
  • The provinces of Austria: map and fact sheets 
  • Official Websites of provincial governments: following federal government Websites (German) 

Constitutional distribution of powers

• Constitution of Austria, in particular:
  • Federal Legislation and Execution  (Article 10)
  • Federal Legislation and state Execution (Article 11)
  • Federal Framework Legislation (Article 12)
  • Competencies in the fields of taxation and education (Articles 13,14)
  • State Legislation and Execution, Exceptions (Article 14a)
  • General Competence of the states (Article 15)
  • Agreements between Federation and states (Article 15a)
  • Implementation of treaties (Article 16)

• International Constitution Law

Legislative institutions

• Federal: Bicameral parliament composed of the Federal Council (Bundesrat) and the National Council (Nationalrat). The Federal Council represents the Federal Provinces; it is elected by the legislative assemblies of the provinces and the number of members for each province depends on the size of its population.
  • The Federal Council: fact sheet
  • Official Website of the Austrian Parliament (German)
  
  
• Provinces: Each province has a legislature (Landtag)
  • Official Websites of provincial legislatures.  From official Websites of provincial governments. (German) 

Official language : German

• Constitution of Austria, in particular Article 8

Other links of interest

• History
• Political System
• Federations Magazine (Forum of Federations), notably:
  • Austrian far-right vote cut by two-thirds, Vol. 3, No. 1 / February-March 2003 (PDF)