Kontinuität oder Wandel? Wahlrechtsreformen und das österreichische Parlament, 1861–1918

Abstract

SUMMARY CONTINUITY OR CHANGE? ELECTION REFORM AND THE AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT, 1861–1918 As a step towards a collective biography of the house of representatives of the Austrian parliament, Franz Adlgasser's article looks at the changes in the social make-up of its members caused by the election reforms of 1873, 1885, 1895 and 1907. It analyses the level of renewal (the percentage of re-elected parliamentarians as against newcomers), the age structure, and the representation of certain occupational groups within the house. Although the average entry age of parliamentarians fell from 46.5 years in 1861 to 43.5 years in 1911, there is no significant relationship between this development and the election reforms. While in normal elections the percentage of newcomers elected to the house stayed at about 30 per cent, these numbers increased significantly in the reform elections of 1873, 1895 and especially 1907, when this percentage more than doubled. At the same time, the dominant occupational groups of the old Honoratiorenparlament—the great landowners, lawyers, and industrialists—were gradually replaced by the representatives of modern mass democracy—farmers, journalists and party representatives—while the number of public employees and clerics in the house remained almost stable at a high level. The Austrian Parliament changed from a pre-modern estates organization into a modern representative body, and this development was mainly caused by the major election reforms at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.