Provincial Committee (Austria)
In the empire of Austria and in the western half of Austria-Hungary, the state committee was the term used to describe the permanent organs of the state parliaments with executive powers, forerunners of the Austrian state governments that had existed since 1920. The chairmanship was held by the respective chairman of the state parliament appointed by the emperor (title: governor ; in Bohemia, Lower Austria and Galicia: state marshal ). Opposite the state committees were the imperial and royal state chiefs (with the title of governor or state president ) as representatives of the emperor and the imperial and royal government in Vienna.
monarchy
The state orders of the countries of the Danube Monarchy have always reflected the long undecided power struggle between the sovereign prince and the estates (essentially the representatives of the native nobility and the high clergy), which ended only in absolutism . The estates were mostly able to retain certain autonomous competencies; in particular, no state taxes could be levied without their cooperation.
In the Austrian Empire, founded in 1804 , this situation remained unchanged for the time being. In the short-lived constitution of 1849, the state committee was an organ of the state parliament. The members of the state committee were elected from among the (not democratically elected) members of the state parliament.
Through the October diploma and above all through the February patent , to which a state constitution was attached for each crown land, autonomous state administrations of modern style were established in 1860/1861 in the course of the democratization and constitutionalization of the Habsburg monarchy . Rights were transferred to the crown lands and legislative bodies were granted in the form of the state parliaments. In legislation and administration, their competencies were modest, settled in the field of agriculture, public buildings and social welfare insofar as they were financed with state funds.
By settling with Hungary , which remained in passive resistance , it and its neighboring countries left this constitutional order in 1867 and were restored as a separate state. (The Hungarian state parliament was then referred to as the Reichstag again.)
The executive and administrative organ of the state parliament was the state committee, a collegially organized state body. The area of responsibility of the state committees included the preparation of state parliament resolutions in the autonomous area of competence, the administration of state assets, state funds and state foundations as well as the exercise of the administrative agendas transferred to the state by the state. Furthermore, the state committee had the supervision of the municipalities in their own (autonomous) sphere of activity.
In the media of the monarchy, the individual member of the state committee was also dubbed “the state committee”.
At the top of each crownland appointed by the emperor was state leader and the led by him authority named governor's office or state government (governor or state president title). The district authorities were subordinate to him . He controlled the state committee and had a major influence on whether laws passed by the state parliament received the approval of the emperor.
Republic of Austria
This double structure was eliminated with the establishment of the First Republic in 1918: With the law of November 14, 1918 regarding the assumption of state power in the states , governors and previous state parliaments and state committees were abolished on November 20, and provisional state assemblies and state governments with a governor as chairman used. The state governments were bound by the instructions of the German-Austrian State Council .
With the Federal Constitution of 1920, the state government was appointed to lead politics in all state competencies. It is elected by the state parliament. The members of the state governments are known as state councilors (in Vorarlberg the deputy of the state governor is referred to as the state governor). Their functions are defined in the respective state constitution.
With the federal constitution, the governor was appointed in addition to his autonomous functions as a representative of the federal government, the entire state, in the state. (As a result, he is sworn in by the Federal President after his election and receives his salary from the federal government.) The office of the state government, under the state governor as head of the authority, has all federal laws that are not directly executed by the federal government (e.g. by tax offices, courts, public prosecutors, state police departments ) to put into practice in the country. The governor can be represented by regional councilors in specialist areas, but remains responsible to the federal government. The governor's direct subordinate is the state office director .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Law of May 19, 1868 on the establishment of political administrative authorities, RGBl. No. 44/1868 (= p. 76)
- ↑ StGBl. No. 24/1918 (= p. 29)
Web links
- Script: Austrian Constitutional History (PDF file; 1.53 MB)