THE STATUS OF A CIVIL SERVANT ACCORDING TO THE AUSTRIAN LEGISLATION IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES (CASE STUDY OF THE GALICIAN VICEGERENCY)

Abstract

The legal status of a civil servant in Austria and Austria-Hungary has been clarified on the grounds of the analysis of the Austrian legislation of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is emphasized in the article that the institute of the vicegerency was established on grounds of governorates that functioned up to 1849 and was subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which determined its place in the system of authorities of the Austrian Empire as a higher local authority (regional government). It is clarified that it was typical for Austria of that time not to have the division into people who worked in political bodies, civil servants and supporting personnel (cleaners, coachmen, etc.). Only the division into administrative and judicial workers was juridically established. In acts of a legislative nature there was a list of formal demands to a person that was willing to take any position in the Austrian vicegerency. The procedure of service, payment for work, the procedure of application of work encouragement and disciplinary penalties were regulated quite carefully. The author brought to notice that from the perspective of the Austrian state administration, clergy was also considered as a specific class of civil servants, and for improper performance of duties, entrusted to them by law, the vicegerency had a power to take disciplinary actions against them. Among the drawbacks of functioning of civil service in Austria in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, we can name such system diseases of the bureaucracy as corruptness and poor level of professionalism (as a rule, among high-ranking civil servants that were sometimes appointed only because of their social status and aristocratic origin).