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59-722: Kirchbichl is a municipality in the Kufstein District in the Austrian state of Tyrol located 10 km south of Kufstein and 3 km northeast above Wörgl . It has six parts and its main source of income is cement industry. This Tyrol location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Municipality (Austria) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] In

118-666: A council–manager government , is used by many local governments in the United States . The first parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages. The earliest example of a parliament is disputed, especially depending how the term is defined. For example, the Icelandic Althing consisting of prominent individuals among the free landowners of the various districts of the Icelandic Commonwealth first gathered around

177-476: A certain measure of budgetary autonomy, although they cannot levy taxes and depend on money allocated to them by the city. The 15 districts of Klagenfurt are roughly neighborhood-sized quarters with no special autonomy. As of January 1, 2018 there are 15 statutory cities in Austria, 186 other cities, 770 market towns, and 1127 other communes, for a total of 2,098 municipalities. One of these municipalities stands out:

236-422: A change in power without an election, and for allowing elections at any time. Bagehot considered fixed-term elections such as the four-year election rule for presidents of the United States to be unnatural, as it can potentially allow a president who has disappointed the public with a dismal performance in the second year of his term to continue on until the end of his four-year term. Under a parliamentary system,

295-628: A definite election calendar can be abused. Under some systems, such as the British, a ruling party can schedule elections when it believes that it is likely to retain power, and so avoid elections at times of unpopularity. (From 2011, election timing in the UK was partially fixed under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 , which was repealed by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 .) Thus, by

354-465: A different party. In Canada and Australia, there are no restraints on legislators switching sides. In New Zealand, waka-jumping legislation provides that MPs who switch parties or are expelled from their party may be expelled from Parliament at the request of their former party's leader. A few parliamentary democracies such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand have weak or non-existent checks on

413-460: A directly elected lower house with the power to determine the executive government, and an upper house which may be appointed or elected through a different mechanism from the lower house. Scholars of democracy such as Arend Lijphart distinguish two types of parliamentary democracies: the Westminster and Consensus systems. Implementations of the parliamentary system can also differ as to how

472-456: A limited form of precinct-level self-government. The district constituency elects a district assembly ( Bezirksvertretung ), the district assembly in turn elect a district commissioner ( Bezirksvorsteher ). District assemblies and commissioners are responsible for whatever matters the city chooses to devolve to them – in general, they run schools and take care of road maintenance, general neighborhood maintenance, and traffic planning. They have

531-544: A municipal executive board ( Gemeindevorstand ) and a mayor ( Bürgermeister , fem. Bürgermeisterin ) appointed by the council are in charge of municipal administration. Austria is currently (January 1, 2020) partitioned into 2,095 municipalities, ranging in population from about fifty (the village of Gramais in Tyrol ) to almost two million (the city of Vienna ). There is no unincorporated territory in Austria. The existence of municipalities and their role as carriers of

590-437: A number of cities that are barely more than villages at present and that are labelled cities merely because they used to be regional population centers in the distant past. The city of Rattenberg , for example, has a population of about 400. The city of Hardegg has about 1200 inhabitants, although the historic city core − Hardegg proper without what used to be the surrounding hamlets − is home to just 80 people. Constitutionally,

649-630: A powerful president with an executive responsible to parliament: for example, the French Fifth Republic . Parliamentarianism may also apply to regional and local governments . An example is Oslo which has an executive council (Byråd) as a part of the parliamentary system. The devolved nations of the United Kingdom are also parliamentary and which, as with the UK Parliament , may hold early elections – this has only occurred with regards to

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708-468: A prime minister that has lost support in the middle of his term can be easily replaced by his own peers with a more popular alternative, as the Conservative Party in the UK did with successive prime ministers David Cameron , Theresa May , Boris Johnson , Liz Truss , and Rishi Sunak . Although Bagehot praised parliamentary governments for allowing an election to take place at any time, the lack of

767-479: A rapid change in legislation and policy as long as there is a stable majority or coalition in parliament, allowing the government to have 'few legal limits on what it can do' When combined with first-past-the-post voting , this system produces the classic "Westminster model" with the twin virtues of strong but responsive party government. This electoral system providing a strong majority in the House of Commons, paired with

826-507: A shrewd timing of elections, in a parliamentary system, a party can extend its rule for longer than is feasible in a presidential system. This problem can be alleviated somewhat by setting fixed dates for parliamentary elections, as is the case in several of Australia's state parliaments. In other systems, such as the Dutch and the Belgian, the ruling party or coalition has some flexibility in determining

885-413: A statutory city is called a city senate ( Stadtsenat ). ( B-VG 117 (1) ) Informally, municipalities that are neither cities nor market towns are sometimes called Landgemeinden , lit. "rural municipalities". The constitution distinguishes between a municipality's sphere of inherent responsibilities ( eigener Wirkungsbereich ) and the sphere of responsibilities delegated to the municipalities by

944-609: A system became particularly prevalent in older British dominions, many of which had their constitutions enacted by the British parliament; such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Irish Free State and the Union of South Africa . Some of these parliaments were reformed from, or were initially developed as distinct from their original British model: the Australian Senate , for instance, has since its inception more closely reflected

1003-476: A warning example of the flaws of parliamentary systems that if the United States had a parliamentary system, Donald Trump , as head of government, could have dissolved the United States Congress . The ability for strong parliamentary governments to push legislation through with the ease of fused power systems such as in the United Kingdom, whilst positive in allowing rapid adaptation when necessary e.g.

1062-408: Is Rattenberg at 0.11 square kilometres (0.042 sq mi); the largest is Sölden in the thinly populated mountain territory of Tyrol at 466.78 square kilometres (180.22 sq mi). The city of Vienna ranks second, at 414.65 square kilometres (160.10 sq mi). Parliamentary system A parliamentary system , or parliamentary democracy , is a form of government where

1121-625: Is constitutionally guaranteed to have is a small share of the purview it has in practice. Matters of public services ( Daseinsvorsorge ) far outclass matters of political administration ( Obrigkeitliche Verwaltungs ) in terms of both salience and budgets. ( Raschauer 2009 , Rz 330.) The cities of Vienna, Graz, and Klagenfurt are divided into municipal districts ( Stadtbezirke , colloquially just Bezirke ). Municipal districts are not to be confused with administrative districts ( politische Bezirke , but colloquially also just called Bezirke ). Administrative districts are provided for by

1180-456: Is rather what is often criticized about presidential systems. Fontaine compares United Kingdom's Margaret Thatcher to the United States' Ronald Reagan noting the former head of government was much more powerful despite governing under a parliamentary system. The rise to power of Viktor Orbán in Hungary has been claimed to show how parliamentary systems can be subverted. The situation in Hungary

1239-406: Is their ability to allow and accommodate more diverse viewpoints. He states that because "legislators are not compelled to vote against their constituents on matters of local concern, parties can serve as organizational and roll-call cuing vehicles without forcing out dissidents." All current parliamentary democracies see the indirect election or appointment of their head of government. As a result,

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1298-406: Is vested, in addition to its purview as a municipality, with the duties of a district administrative authority . The status does not come with any additional political autonomy: district administrative authorities are essentially just service centers that citizens use to interact with the national government, for example to apply for driver licenses or passports. The national government generally uses

1357-536: The 1708 Scottish Militia Bill . Whilst both the UK and New Zealand have some Acts or parliamentary rules establishing supermajorities or additional legislative procedures for certain legislation, such as previously with the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA), these can be bypassed through the enactment of another that amends or ignores these supermajorities away, such as with the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 – bypassing

1416-848: The French Third Republic where the Radical Party and its centre-left allies dominated the government for several decades. However, the rise of Fascism in the 1930s put an end to parliamentary democracy in Italy and Germany, among others. After the Second World War , the defeated fascist Axis powers were occupied by the victorious Allies . In those countries occupied by the Allied democracies (the United States , United Kingdom , and France ) parliamentary constitutions were implemented, resulting in

1475-473: The Northern Ireland Assembly in 2017 and 2022 . A few parliamentary democratic nations such as India , Pakistan and Bangladesh have enacted laws that prohibit floor crossing or switching parties after the election. Under these laws, elected representatives will lose their seat in the parliament if they go against their party in votes. In the UK parliament, a member is free to cross over to

1534-479: The Republic of Austria , the municipality ( German : Gemeinde , sometimes also Ortsgemeinde ) is the administrative division encompassing a single village , town , or city . The municipality has corporate status and local self-government on the basis of parliamentary-style representative democracy : a municipal council ( Gemeinderat ) elected through a form of party-list system enacts municipal laws,

1593-726: The US Senate than the British House of Lords ; whereas since 1950 there is no upper house in New Zealand. Many of these countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados have severed institutional ties to Great Britain by becoming republics with their own ceremonial Presidents, but retain the Westminster system of government. The idea of parliamentary accountability and responsible government spread with these systems. Democracy and parliamentarianism became increasingly prevalent in Europe in

1652-485: The fused power system results in a particularly powerful government able to provide change and 'innovate'. The United Kingdom's fused power system is often noted to be advantageous with regard to accountability. The centralised government allows for more transparency as to where decisions originate from, this contrasts with the American system with Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon saying "the president blames Congress,

1711-412: The head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legislature , to which they are held accountable. This head of government is usually, but not always, distinct from a ceremonial head of state . This is in contrast to a presidential system, which features a president who is not fully accountable to

1770-794: The parliamentary constitutions of Italy and West Germany (now all of Germany) and the 1947 Constitution of Japan . The experiences of the war in the occupied nations where the legitimate democratic governments were allowed to return strengthened the public commitment to parliamentary principles; in Denmark , a new constitution was written in 1953, while a long and acrimonious debate in Norway resulted in no changes being made to that country's strongly entrenched democratic constitution . A parliamentary system may be either bicameral , with two chambers of parliament (or houses) or unicameral , with just one parliamentary chamber. A bicameral parliament usually consists of

1829-563: The 2/3rd supermajority required for an early dissolution under the FTPA -, which enabled the early dissolution for the 2019 general election . Parliamentarism metrics allow a quantitative comparison of the strength of parliamentary systems for individual countries. One parliamentarism metric is the Parliamentary Powers Index. Parliamentary systems like that found in the United Kingdom are widely considered to be more flexible, allowing

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1888-453: The Benelux countries require a sitting member of the legislature to resign such positions upon being appointed to the executive. Furthermore, there are variations as to what conditions exist (if any) for the government to have the right to dissolve the parliament: The parliamentary system can be contrasted with a presidential system which operates under a stricter separation of powers, whereby

1947-662: The Congress blames the president, and the public remains confused and disgusted with government in Washington". Furthermore, ministers of the U.K. cabinet are subject to weekly Question Periods in which their actions/policies are scrutinised; no such regular check on the government exists in the U.S. system. A 2001 World Bank study found that parliamentary systems are associated with less corruption. In his 1867 book The English Constitution , Walter Bagehot praised parliamentary governments for producing serious debates, for allowing for

2006-413: The city of Vienna is a statutory city and a state at the same time. At 1,900,000 inhabitants, the national capital also seven times larger than the second most populous city, Graz . For the other eight states, the numbers are as follows ( Statistik Austria 2018 ): With respect to population, there is wide variation within each class of municipalities: With respect to area, the smallest municipality

2065-432: The constitution and play an important and highly visible role in Austria's national and regional administrations. Municipal districts are subsections of local administrations established by local laws. Vienna, Graz, and Klagenfurt are statutory cities and as such are equivalent to one administrative district each. The 23 districts of Vienna ( Wiener Gemeindebezirke ) and the 17 districts of Graz are vested with

2124-408: The election date. Conversely, flexibility in the timing of parliamentary elections can avoid periods of legislative gridlock that can occur in a fixed period presidential system. In any case, voters ultimately have the power to choose whether to vote for the ruling party or someone else. According to Arturo Fontaine , parliamentary systems in Europe have yielded very powerful heads of government which

2183-429: The electorate has limited power to remove or install the person or party wielding the most power. Although strategic voting may enable the party of the prime minister to be removed or empowered, this can be at the expense of voters first preferences in the many parliamentary systems utilising first past the post , or having no effect in dislodging those parties who consistently form part of a coalition government, as with

2242-491: The executive does not form part of—nor is appointed by—the parliamentary or legislative body. In such a system, parliaments or congresses do not select or dismiss heads of government, and governments cannot request an early dissolution as may be the case for parliaments (although the parliament may still be able to dissolve itself, as in the case of Cyprus ). There also exists the semi-presidential system that draws on both presidential systems and parliamentary systems by combining

2301-477: The head of government is also head of state but is elected by the legislature. In bicameral parliaments, the head of government is generally, though not always, a member of the lower house . Parliamentary democracy is the dominant form of government in the European Union , Oceania , and throughout the former British Empire , with other users scattered throughout Africa and Asia . A similar system, called

2360-641: The higher levels of government ( übertragener Wirkungsbereich ). The constitution defines a minimum extent of the inherent sphere that national and provincial law may add to but not detract from: ( B-VG 118 (2) ) Additional legislation vests municipalities with a large number of additional responsibilities. Municipalities are in charge of public water supply, sewage disposal, garbage disposal, public lighting, and cemetery construction and maintenance, among other things. They run schools and kindergartens, assisted living facilities, sports and cultural facilities, and fire departments. The purview each Austrian municipality

2419-550: The legislative power of their Parliaments, where any newly approved Act shall take precedence over all prior Acts. All laws are equally unentrenched, wherein judicial review may not outright annul nor amend them, as frequently occurs in other parliamentary systems like Germany . Whilst the head of state for both nations ( Monarch , and or Governor General ) has the de jure power to withhold assent to any bill passed by their Parliament, this check has not been exercised in Britain since

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2478-413: The legislature, and cannot be replaced by a simple majority vote. Countries with parliamentary systems may be constitutional monarchies , where a monarch is the head of state while the head of government is almost always a member of parliament , or parliamentary republics , where a mostly ceremonial president is the head of state while the head of government is from the legislature. In a few countries,

2537-559: The main difference between municipalities that are cities ( Städte , sing. Stadt ) and municipalities that are not is that in cities, the municipal executive board is called not a Gemeindevorstand but a Stadtrat ( B-VG 117 (1) ) . A similar distinction, meaningful in the past but symbolic today, is that of market town ( Marktgemeinde ). Cities that are economic and administrative centers of wider geographic reach can be elevated to statutory city status. A statutory city ( Stadt mit eigenem Statut or Statutarstadt )

2596-661: The nationalisation of services during the world wars, in the opinion of some commentators does have its drawbacks. For instance, the flip-flopping of legislation back and forth as the majority in parliament changed between the Conservatives and Labour over the period 1940–1980, contesting over the nationalisation and privatisation of the British Steel Industry resulted in major instability for the British steel sector. In R. Kent Weaver's book Are Parliamentary Systems Better? , he writes that an advantage of presidential systems

2655-401: The people and an executive branch installed and supervised by the legislature: Municipal governments do not have judicial branches. Larger municipalities are typically granted city status ( Stadtrecht ). The distinction, while important in medieval and early modern times, is purely symbolic today. City status does not currently confer any additional legal responsibilities. There exists

2714-527: The period 1707 to 1800 and its contemporary, the Parliamentary System in Sweden between 1721 and 1772 , and later in Europe and elsewhere in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the expansion of like institutions, and beyond In England, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the figures relevant later for convening two famous parliaments. The first , in 1258, stripped the king of unlimited authority and

2773-563: The power to pass legislation, apart from the custom. An early example of parliamentary government developed in today's Netherlands and Belgium during the Dutch revolt (1581), when the sovereign, legislative and executive powers were taken over by the States General of the Netherlands from the monarch, King Philip II of Spain . Significant developments Kingdom of Great Britain , in particular in

2832-437: The prime minister and government are appointed and whether the government needs the explicit approval of the parliament, rather than just the absence of its disapproval. While most parliamentary systems such as India require the prime minister and other ministers to be a member of the legislature, in other countries like Canada and the United Kingdom this only exists as a convention, some other countries including Norway, Sweden and

2891-623: The provinces to run these points of contact on its behalf; in the case of statutory cities, the municipality gets to step up. Just like Austria has a number of villages that are nominally cities because they used to be significant in the past, Austria has a number of minor towns that hold statutory city status because they used to be regional capitals a few centuries ago. Examples include Waidhofen an der Ybbs , population ca. 11,000, or Rust , population ca. 1900. A municipality that desires statutory city status today needs to have at least 20,000 inhabitants. ( B-VG 116 (3) ) The municipal executive board of

2950-518: The responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the leading minister, literally the prime or first minister, Robert Walpole . The gradual democratisation of parliament with the broadening of the voting franchise increased parliament's role in controlling government, and in deciding whom the king could ask to form a government. By the 19th century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice invariably deciding who

3009-418: The right to own property, run businesses, levy municipal taxes, and generally manage their own financial affairs. ( B-VG 116 (3) ). Municipalities have a right to form municipal associations , subject to supervision by the provincial administration ( B-VG 116a ) and enter into treaties with other municipalities ( B-VG 116b ). Municipalities are miniature parliamentary democracies with a legislature elected by

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3068-508: The right to self-administration are guaranteed by the Austrian constitution ( B-VG Art. 116 (1) ). The constitution means for municipalities to be autonomous ( eigenverantwortlich ) in any matter that a village, town, or city can presumed to be both interested in handling and best capable of handling. Municipal authorities are required to comply with national and provincial legislation and can be held accountable by courts for failure to abide by

3127-473: The rule of law, but they are not politically answerable to national or provincial administrators and do not take orders from them. ( B-VG 118 ) All real estate in Austria falls within a municipality's borders, meaning that there are no unincorporated areas and no way for either the government or any resident to sidestep the requirement that each permanent resident be part of a municipal community. ( B-VG 116 (2) ). All municipalities are corporations and have

3186-405: The same effect; the presidential election, and the legislative election, and that the president's party has the legislative supermajority required for constitutional amendments. Safeguards against this situation implementable in both systems include the establishment of an upper house or a requirement for external ratification of constitutional amendments such as a referendum . Fontaine also notes as

3245-645: The second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns . Later, in the 17th century, the Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of liberal democracy culminating in the Glorious Revolution and passage of the Bill of Rights 1689 . In the Kingdom of Great Britain , the monarch, in theory, chaired the cabinet and chose ministers. In practice, King George I 's inability to speak English led to

3304-468: The year 930 (it conducted its business orally, with no written record allowing an exact date). The first written record of a parliament, in particular in the sense of an assembly separate from the population called in presence of a King was 1188 Alfonso IX, King of Leon (Spain) convened the three states in the Cortes of León . The Corts of Catalonia were the first parliament of Europe that officially obtained

3363-739: The years after World War I , partially imposed by the democratic victors, the United States, Great Britain and France, on the defeated countries and their successors, notably Germany's Weimar Republic and the First Austrian Republic . Nineteenth-century urbanisation , the Industrial Revolution and modernism had already made the parliamentarist demands of the Radicals and the emerging movement of social democrats increasingly impossible to ignore; these forces came to dominate many states that transitioned to parliamentarism, particularly in

3422-557: Was according to Fontaine allowed by the deficient separation of powers that characterises parliamentary and semi-presidential systems. Once Orbán's party got two-thirds of the seats in Parliament in a single election, a supermajority large enough to amend the Hungarian constitution, there was no institution that was able to balance the concentration of power. In a presidential system it would require at least two separate elections to create

3481-545: Was prime minister and the complexion of the government. Other countries gradually adopted what came to be called the Westminster system of government, with an executive answerable to the lower house of a bicameral parliament, and exercising, in the name of the head of state, powers nominally vested in the head of state – hence the use of phrases such as Her Majesty's government (in constitutional monarchies) or His Excellency's government (in parliamentary republics ). Such

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