Proporz

Proporz (German: [pʁoˈpɔʁts], from ) is a long-standing doctrine within the politics of the second Austrian republic that government posts be allocated to parties in proportion to their electoral support. However, recent developments, both internal and external, have arguably weakened the influence of the Proporz system in Austrian politics.

Under the Proporz system, the posts of Cabinet Ministers are filled by party members as closely as possible in proportion to the votes won by their respective parties in the general elections. Furthermore, the particular portfolios are selected by each party on the basis of its constituency or any perceived ideological mandate to them.

Thus, for example, the portfolio of Minister for Labour and Social Relations was nearly always held by a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), while the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), with traditionally strong support from farmers, took the Ministry which controlled agriculture and forestry.

In this basic form, the principle would not be exclusive to Austria, but would be an element of many countries which have coalition governments.

The Proporz system arose out of the need for balanced, consensual governance in the early years of Austria's second republic. At the time, the nation was consumed in an effort to rebuild the country after the devastation of World War II. Moreover, the nation was still haunted by the specter of the ideological factionalism which had characterized Austria's first republic (cf. the events of the Austrian Civil War). Thus, the doctrine of Proporz is intimately linked to the idea of the grand coalition, in which the major political parties, in the case of post-war Austria the SPÖ and the ÖVP, share in the government.

...
Wikipedia