BOTH ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AND IMPERIAL OFFICIALS? THE MAYORS’ INSTALLATION IN THE STATUTORY CITIES OF HABSBURG AUSTRIA 1860–1918

The article focuses on the specific legal status of statutory towns in Austria from the restoration of constitutionalism in 1860 to the end of the monarchy and on the peculiarities of their administration. Special attention is paid to their method of selecting representatives since the mayors of the statutory towns were subject to the approval of the government and the emperor. The article examines the impact of the confirmation process on the selection of mayors, and to what extent and in what manner the government exercised its option to exclude certain elected individuals from the leadership of the statutory cities. It shows the changes in the approach of the government after the 1870s and concludes in stating the inefficiency of this tool.