Institute for Parliamentarism and Democracy
The Institute for Parliamentarism and Democracy Issues is a scientific and at the same time practice-oriented institution with its seat in the parliamentary club of the Austrian People's Party in the Austrian Parliament .
Goal setting
The aim of the institute is to bring concepts such as parliamentarism and democracy to life through publications and discussions and to bring them closer to interested parties.
Foundation and structure
The Institute for Parliamentarism and Democracy Issues was founded in February 2009 by Werner Zögernitz , former parliamentary club director of the ÖVP parliamentary group and first president of the institute, and Karlheinz Kopf , club chairman of the ÖVP .
Focus
The aim of the institute is to combine scientific and practical know-how. The president is Werner Zögernitz, who, due to his professional activity, has been very familiar with parliamentary processes both in the creation of laws in the Council of Ministers and in parliamentary treatment in the committees and in the plenary sessions of the National and Federal Councils since the early 1970s.
As a co-author (with Konrad Atzwanger) of the two standard works of Austrian parliamentarism, the commentaries on the rules of procedure of the National Council and the Federal Council, he is also a recognized expert on all questions of the rules of procedure and parliamentarism.
The institute sees an important task in making the complex and difficult-to-understand legislative procedure and parliamentary processes accessible to those interested in an easily understandable way.
At the same time, the institute should serve as a service point for experts, parliamentarians, journalists, civil servants, etc.
The institute has the following work areas
- General rules of procedure and reforms of the rules of procedure of the Austrian National and Federal Council
- Selected constitutional and democracy issues
- Treatment of EU issues in the Austrian parliament
- Parliamentary immunity
- Parliamentary committees of inquiry
- Comparative case studies of national parliaments in democratic countries
- History of parliamentarism
- Role of the media in relation to parliamentarianism
- Elections and parties
Other focal points of the institute are research work for publications and the exchange of views with experts in other democratic parliaments. The institute is also intended to be a platform for discussions on current topics.