ABSTRACT
Research on the Austrian parliamentary administration is scant and mainly conducted by historians and legal scholars. The existing knowledge is largely scattered and descriptive. This chapter offers an empirically informed overview of the main features of Austria's parliamentary administration focusing in particular on its legal and political context. After presenting the constitutional and legal framework, it then gives an overview of the size of Austria's parliamentary administration and its evolution over the last decade in terms of budget, staff, the growing focus on expert support and public relations. The chapter draws on a wide range of legal and political documents as well as quantitative data to shed light on the recent developments and main challenges the parliamentary administration faces today. It also draws on five expert interviews with individuals from the parliamentary administration. As an asymmetrical bicameral parliament, federal statutes are mainly adopted by the National Council.
