Landtag
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Landtag (Diet) is a representative assembly, with some legislative authority, of a political entity called Land (i.e. state, country, territory) in German.
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[edit] Ancien Régime
In the feudal society, the formal class system was reflected in the composition of the state's 'representative' assembly (The States), regardless of its name well described as estates: it was not intended as an elected reflection of the public opinion, but a fixed expression of the established power as recognized in formal privileges, including the right to seat in person (granted to many aristocrats and prelates, as well as certain cities) or be represented as elector in o college that is entitled to one or more seats. In some of the German states that were known as Land, the name of such estates assembly was Landtag, analogous to the Reichstag (imperial Diet, mainly comprising most princes of church and hereditary states plus the Imperial Cities). The precise composition obviously varied greatly, and could change over time, as the result of privileges granted or lost, entities split or merged, border changes etcetera.
As Austria and Prussia escaped the French 'exporting the revolution', and Napoleon was happy to maintain satellite monarchies in most German territories under his control (members of the Confederation of the Rhine), the more democratic principles of the Enlightenment would have less effect in the German-speaking lands, or only much later.
[edit] Modern legislatures
In constitutive states of the federal republic of Germany and Austria, independent Liechtenstein and Italy's autonomous (ethnically largely Germanic) South Tyrol, a Landtag is a unicameral legislature for a federal land.
Not all states of Germany have a body called the Landtag: in the city states of the legislature is either called Abgeordnetenhaus (in Berlin) or, in those of Hamburg and Bremen, Bürgerschaft.
[edit] German Legislatures
- Landtag of Baden-Württemberg
- Landtag of Bavaria (Until 1999, this large Freistaat Bavaria had a bicameral legislature, with a lower house called the Landtag, and an upper house called the Senate)
- Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (the new federal and old imperial capital's city-state)
- Landtag of Brandenburg
- Bürgerschaft of Bremen
- Bürgerschaft of Hamburg
- Landtag of Hesse
- Landtag of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
- Landtag of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
- Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia
- Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate
- Landtag of Saarland
- Landtag of Saxony
- Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt
- Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein
- Landtag of Thuringia
The nation's in most matter bicameral Parliament comprises the directly elected Bundestag and (not in all matter constitutionally competent but always veto-entitled) Bundesrat which represents the constitutive states.
[edit] Austrian Legislatures
- Landtag of Burgenland (Transleithanian, never a separate Crown land)
- Landtag of Carinthia
- Landtag of Lower Austria
- Landtag of Upper Austria
- Landtag of Salzburg
- Landtag of Styria (Steiermark)
- Landtag of Tyrol
- Landtag of Vorarlberg
- Gemeinderat of Vienna (statehood granted late; not unlike Berlin, it is identical to its municipal 'Gemeinderat', as the federal capital is a city-state: state and municipality at the same time)
In seven cases the modern Landtage are the democratic successors of the Landtage of the corresponding imperial Kronlands. Exceptions are the city of Vienna (which belonged to the Lower Austria Kronland) and Burgenland (which belonged to the kingdom of Hungary, in personal union).
Austria's national bicameral parliament, the Bundesversammlung (Federal Assembly), consists of a directly elected Nationalrat (National Council) and a Bundesrat (Federal Council).
[edit] Italy
In Italy's predominantly German-speaking province of South Tyrol the provincial council is called
- Landtag.
[edit] Liechtenstein
In the Sovereign principality of Liechtenstein the national parliament is called the Landtag of Liechtenstein.
[edit] Sources and references
- Donaumonarchie (German)
