States of Austria

A country also State, is a member state of the federal organized in Austria.

Position of countries in the State

The countries have their own state constitutions - which must not contradict the Federal Constitution - and come with the state legislatures have their own legislative and with the state governments have their own executive bodies. The judiciary is against it - to the federal government alone - with the exception of administrative justice. The countries are both federal administrative units; in the context of indirect federal state organs also work for the federal government.

Five of the nine Austrian provinces, Lower Austria, Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol, Salzburg ( as an archbishopric ) arose in the Middle Ages, Upper Austria became independent under Joseph II 1783/84; Vorarlberg has long been state of Tyrol in 1861 and independently; 1921 came the Burgenland, which was by then part of Hungary, added. With 1922 finally Vienna was separated from Lower Austria and applicable to their own state.

The terms country and state

The Federal Constitution mainly used the term country instead of state. The state constitutions follow this choice of words.

Overview of the nine countries

The Austrian countries and their political landscape