Moravia and Silesia, which were inhabited by about 35 million Germans, two new Territories were carved: German-Bohemia and Sudetenland, each with a Provisional Territorial Assembly. In actual practice, however, the executive power of German- Austria could not extend to these Territories, as they were held by the Czechoslovak State, to which they were eventually assigned. As the revolutionary constitution of the Territorial Assemblies and of the Territories themselves took place at the same time as that of the National Assembly and of the State, but independently, the limits between Territorial legislation and State legislation were not clearly defined from the very outset. The Territories became the centres of a movement in favour of an extreme form of federalism, and this led to the constitution of Austria being ultimately that of a Federal State.
A State law required essentially only a resolution of the National Assembly, which had to be registered and attested by the Council of State and published in the Government law gazette.
The Council of State had a suspensive veto on legislation, but this was overridden by the simple passage of a measure a second time through the National Assembly, a bill then passed at once becoming law. According to the constitution a Terri- torial law to be valid required not only to be passed by the Territorial Diet but to receive the assent of the Council of State, which, in this as in other respects, had taken the place occupied by the Emperor under the old Austrian constitution. In view of the actual power of the Territories, however, the Council of State was unable to assert its right of veto.
Apart from the 20 delegates, and an equal number of sub- stitutes, elected as already described, the Council of State in- cluded the three presidents of the National Assembly, who presided over it in rotation. Though the Council, thus con- stituted, was the supreme organ of parliamentary Government, it did not itself carry on the administration directly, but through a Cabinet, nominated by it, consisting of so-called secretaries of State, who acted as heads of departments. The Cabinet was also to be presided over by the presidents of the National Assembly in rotation, and it was only in the absence of these that the State Chancellor, whose functions were in fact those of minister-president, took the chair. The Cabinet was subject to the principle of ministerial responsibility, which could be enforced in the special court for dealing with infringements of the laws and constitution (Staatsgerichtshof) , the functions of which had originally been transferred to a parliamentary com- mittee of twenty.
The whole machinery of administration was taken over from the old Austria almost without a change. Only in the case of the offices forming an intermediate link between the administrations of the Territories and the State was there any drastic reform. Each one of the so-called " Crown Territories " (Kronlander), of which the Austrian monarchy was composed, constituted the area of an intermediate administration, at the head of which was a governor or lieutenant (Statthaltcr) nominated by the Emperor and subordinate to the central Government. Side by side with this, however, the Territories existed as autonomous bodies politic, with an administrative system of their own in all matters not falling withi n the province of the central administration. This autonomous administration was exercised by the Territorial Diet (Landtag) through a Territorial Committee (Landesaus- schuss) elected from among its members and presided over by the president of the Diet, who was nominated by the Emperor.
This parallelism of the autonomous and State administrations in the Territories, with the rivalry between them, had been one of the worst evils of the old monarchy; it was done away with under the provisional constitution of German- Austria by the simultaneous democratization of the intermediate adminis- trative system. The whole administration in the Territories was declared to be a State concern; the autonomous and State administrative organizations were amalgamated and subor- dinated to a Territorial Government, consisting of the head of the Territory (Landeshauptmanri) and several substitutes
elected by the Territorial Assembly from among its own mem- bers. This Territorial Government was subordinated to the central State Government in all matters of Territorial ad- ministration, but there were no legal provisions for making this subordination effective. The central State Government could not depose a Territorial Government, nor could it in any way call it to account for disobedience; it was, in short, wholly dependent on the goodwill of the Territorial Government, which, since it was elected by the Territorial Diet, felt itself politically responsible to this alone. This led to a very serious loosening, almost indeed to the complete dissolution, of the administrative system of the State, and was one of the factors which ultimately led to the adoption of the Federal constitution.
As regards the organization of justice and the relations of the citizen to the State, the new provisional constitution confined itself to adopting, more or less unaltered, the respective rules of the old Austrian constitution. In the same way all the remaining private and public law of the monarchy, in so far as it was not inconsistent with the new constitution, was expressly taken over under an article of the provisional constitution, and thus, formally at least, given a fresh validity.
The main task of the Provisional National Assembly, in addition to the creation of a provisional constitution, was to prepare the way for the Constituent Assembly, for which the framing of a definitive constitution was reserved. According to the electoral law passed by the Provisional Assembly, the Constituent Assembly was to consist of 225 members, who were to be elected in 38 constituencies on the basis of equal, secret and personal suffrage for all citizens at least 20 years of age, without distinction of sex, and on the system of proportional representation. Actually, however, only 170 members were returned, as no elections could be held in the territories occupied by Czechoslovakia, Italy and Yugoslavia. Of the 170 deputies, 72 were Social Democrats, 69 Christian Socialists, 26 German Nationalists, the three remaining being a Bourgeois-Democrat, a Czechoslovak, and a Jewish Nationalist (the two latter having supporters in Vienna only).
The Constituent Assembly. The Constituent National As- sembly met at Vienna on March 4 1919. Before settling the definitive constitution it made one or two not unimportant modifications in the provisional constitution (laws of March 4 on Popular Representation and the State Government). Above all, the relation between State and Territorial legislation was regulated. In the first place it was decided that all legislative acts of the Territorial Diets were to be submitted to the central State Government, to which was assigned the power of suspen- sive veto and, in the event of such acts being contrary to the constitution, the right to challenge them before the court established to try constitutional cases (Verfassungsgerichtshof). Acts of the Territorial Diet needing the cooperation of the central Government for their execution were made subject to the endorsement of the latter. Drastic alterations were made in the organization of the executive power. The Council of State, with its directory, was abolished, and its governmental and executive powers transferred to the Cabinet, which was hence- forth to be directly elected by the National Assembly. The election of the Cabinet was entrusted to the Principal Com- mittee (Hauptausschuss), itself elected from the body of the Parliament, the three chief parties being proportionally repre- sented. This Committee, through which Parliament exercised a decisive influence over the executive and without whose con- sent no important act of Government could be undertaken, to a certain extent took the place of the Council of State, but, unlike this, without any public appearance of functioning as the head of the State. These functions representation of the State in its relation with foreign Powers, more especially the ratification of treaties, the nomination of officials, the right of pardon, etc. were entrusted to the president of the National Assembly; so that in this way, too, the character of parliamentary Govern- ment found outward expression.
The conclusion of the Treaty of St. Germain compelled a, further alteration of the constitution of German- Austria. By
