We are Austrians essays

We are Austrians essays In this journal entry we ask ourselves who we are as Austrians. What does it mean to be an Austrian and come from our country? Todays Austrians are a complicated and interesting people. They have a long history closely tied with Germany. Both countries share many of the same policy issues, and structure their governments the same. The current structure of government institutions is very close to that of Germany. In the executive branch, there is both a head of state and a head of government. The head of state acts as a uniting figure, and is supposed to remain apolitical. He represents Austria to the rest of the world. He is elected by popular vote for a 6-year term, renewable only twice. The head of government is the one who gets into the political scene. This person is elected from the lower house of the National Council. The National Council acts as the legislative branch of the government. It is bicameral. It is composed of the Nationalrat and the Bundesrat/Federal Council. The Nationalrat is the lower house, which is composed of a total of 183 members. The Federal Council is composed of 62 members. The legislature has the rare opportunity to boast a long history of a Grand Coalition government. This is not seen in many parliaments across the globe. Each Member of Parliament serves a 5-year term, which i s renewable. The National Council uses proportional representation with a 4% threshold. It is currently composed of the SPO with 57 seats, the OVP with 51 seats, the FPO with 34 seats, the BZO with 21 seats, and the Greens with 20 seats. Overall, we have a very sound and cooperative government, which can be inferred from the many grand coalition governments. We also have a long history of consociationalism. This is where we delegate problem-solving responsibilities to the lowest form of government possible capable of doing the job. We believe that the more personal and local the issue is to a person, the more likely tha...