Acceso usuarios
Heinz Tichy
The representation of ethnic minorities has remained an issue in the parliament of the Austrian Republic at the end of the twentieth century, just as it had been in that half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy a century earlier. However, in modern Austria theoretical discussions of the problem have not yet led to any attempt at a practical solution. Whereas the Dual Monarchy's system was based on the majority principle, so that the size of constituencies could be ‘gerrymandered’ to secure more seats for ethnic minorities, the republics since 1918 have been committed to proportional representation. The much smaller ethnic minorities in the twentieth century gave rise to little interest in their representation until after 1955, when the state undertook new obligations under international law, albeit in rather general terms committing it to ‘equal elections’ and ‘the rights of minorities’. The federal constitutional court had to consider these matters once the Slovenian minority in Carinthia brought a case in 1979 complaining of their non-representation in the provincial parliament. The court would not accept the argument that formal equality of votes did not lead to equality of representation. None of the subsequent proposals to alter the legal or constitutional framework so as to meet the demands of minorities in Carinthia or elsewhere in the Republic overcame the problems of misuse by those for whom the measures were not intended or the changing nature of minority groupings. Heinz Tichy concludes his review by arguing that present Austrian constitutional law guarantees equal rights for individuals, not collective groups, and merely allows for, but does not require, modifications to the electoral laws to secure representation for ethnic minorities. He warns that a special parliamentary mandate for relatively small national minorities might create more problems than it solved, and suggests instead following the Danish model of using lobbyists to represent minority interests.
