ICS Working Papers Nº2/2016

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ICS WORKING PAPERS 2016
through the institutionalization of corporatist representation formalized in the 1934
constitution. In this context, the influence Heimwehr fascists had on the corporatist option
cannot be understated, since it coincided with the time they had their greatest political
influence within the new regime. As they were closer to the Italian Fascist model and to
Othmar Spann, they had been proposing projects for the corporatization of the political
system since 1930.
The 1934 constitution established a period of transition, and when Hitler invaded Austria in
1938 a large part of the corporatization process had not yet left the drawing board. According
to the new constitution, the legislative structure of the Austrian New State was based on
three pillars representing self-government in economic, state and cultural politics, and
functioning as advisory bodies. They had to offer opinion on planned legislation when
requested by the government: the state council (Staatsrat), which was a kind of upper house
made up of 40-50 men of merit and character appointed by the federal president – it was
mainly concerned with matters of state and welfare; the Federal Cultural Council
(Bundeskulturrat), which had 40 members, including two women, who were all appointed by
the federal president for a six-year term; and the Federal Economic Council
(Bundeswirtschaftsrat), which was made up of 80 people and was the only body in which the
names of the seven professional corporatist bodies were listed in the constitution.
Overarching these pillars at the top of the constitutional framework was the Federal Diet
(Bundestag). This corporatist parliament consisted of 20 delegates from the state council, 10
from the federal cultural council and 20 from the Federal Economic Council. All these council
members were supposed to be elected by these councils, but after 1934 they were appointed
directly by the federal president. The Bundestag had only limited powers to decide on
proposals from and to the federal government.
In electoral terms, the organic vote was established; however, we should not forget that as
elsewhere with the absence of organized corporations these bodies were composed of
members appointed by the president and the chancellor since only two of the seven
professional corporations had been created by 1938. The CS was dominant in many of these
advisory bodies, although during the first two years of the regime the Heimwehr had more
places within them than their electoral strength in the parliament of the democratic
period The government had a great deal of autonomy in relation to these advisory
bodies, which had only limited and partial veto powers that could be circumvented by the
executive. The subjection of the legislative branch to the government left little room for the
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