ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights certain aspects of government practice in Austria in the 1930s on the basis of an analysis of both the written constitution of 1934 and the very different constitutional reality of the years leading up to 1938. In the eyes of the political elites, at least those rooted in the Christian Social camp, Austria was to become a model Catholic state. Although initially set up as temporary tools in the fight against National Socialist terrorism, the security directors and the General Directorate of Security are enshrined in Austrian law. The first half of 1934, when the state structures of authoritarian Austria were formed, was part of the short period when the Heimwehr had an effective and lasting influence on government action. Just like other authoritarian regimes of the interwar period, the Austrian government under Dollfuss and Schuschnigg thought that the 1934 constitution would allow them to go a "third way", avoiding both liberal democracy and totalitarian dictatorship.
