Local government

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Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities
over areas that are smaller than a state.[citation
needed]

The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which
are referred to as the central government,
national government,
or (where appropriate) federal government.
"Local government," generally acts within powers delegated to it by legislation
or directives of the higher level of government and each country has some kind
of local government which will differ from those of other countries. In
primitive societies the lowest level of local government is the village headman
or tribal chief. Federal states such as the United States have two levels of
government above the local level: the governments of the fifty states and the
federal national government whose relations are governed by the constitution of
the United States. Local government in the United States originated in the
colonial period and has been modified since then: the highest level of local
government is at county level.[citation
needed]

In modern nations, local governments
usually have some of the same kind of powers as national governments do. They
usually have some power to raise taxes, though these may be limited
by central legislation. The question of
Municipal
Autonomy—which powers the local government has, or should have, and why—is a
key question of public
administration and governance. The institutions
of local government vary greatly between countries, and even where similar
arrangements exist, the terminology often varies. Common names for local
government entities include state, province, region, department,
county, prefecture,
district, city, township, town, borough, parish, municipality, shire and village. However
all these names are often used informally in different countries & local
government is the legal part of central government.[citation
needed]

Contents

1 Africa

1.1 Egypt

1.2 Kenya

1.3 Mali

2 Asia

2.1 Afghanistan

2.2 India

2.3 Israel

2.4 Japan

2.5 Malaysia

2.6 Pakistan

2.7 Palestinian
Authority

2.8 Philippines

2.9 Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia

2.10 Turkey

3 Europe

3.1 France

3.2 Germany

3.3 Ireland

3.4 Isle of
Man

3.5 Italy

3.6 Netherlands

3.7 Norway

3.8 Spain

3.9 Sweden

3.10 Ukraine

3.11 United
Kingdom

3.11.1 England

3.11.2 Northern
Ireland

3.11.3 Wales

3.11.4 Scotland

4 North America

4.1 Canada

4.2 Mexico

4.3 United
States

5 Oceania

5.1 Australia

5.2 New
Zealand

6 South America

6.1 Argentina

6.2 Paraguay

6.3 Uruguay

7 See also

8 References

9 External links

9.1 New
Zealand

[edit]
Africa

[edit]
Egypt

Local government traditionally enjoyed limited power in Egypt's highly centralized state.
Under the central government were twenty-six governorates (sing., muhafazah;
pl., muhafazat). These were subdivided into districts (sing., markaz; pl.,
marakaz) and villages (sing., qaryah; pl., qura) or towns. At each level, there
was a governing structure that combined representative councils and
government-appointed executive organs headed by governors, district officers,
and mayors, respectively. Governors were appointed by the president, and they,
in turn, appointed subordinate executive officers. The coercive backbone of the
state apparatus ran downward from the Ministry of Interior through the
governors' executive organs to the district police station and the village
headman (sing., umdah; pl., umadah).

Before the revolution, state penetration of the rural areas was limited by
the power of local notables, but under Nasser, land reform reduced their
socioeconomic dominance, and the incorporation of peasants into cooperatives
transferred mass dependence from landlords to government. The extension of
officials into the countryside permitted the regime to bring development and
services to the village. The local branches of the ruling party, the Arab
Socialist Union (ASU), fostered a certain peasant political activism and coopted
the local notables—in particular the village headmen—and checked their
independence from the regime.[citation
needed]

State penetration did not retreat under Sadat and Mubarak. The earlier effort
to mobilize peasants and deliver services disappeared as the local party and
cooperative withered, but administrative controls over the peasants remained
intact. The local power of the old families and the headmen revived but more at
the expense of peasants than of the state. The district police station balanced
the notables, and the system of local government (the mayor and council)
integrated them into the regime.[citation
needed]

Sadat took several measures to decentralize power to the provinces and towns.
Governors acquired more authority under Law Number 43 of 1979, which reduced the
administrative and budgetary controls of the central government over the
provinces. The elected councils acquired, at least formally, the right to
approve or disapprove the local budget. In an effort to reduce local demands on
the central treasury, local government was given wider powers to raise local
taxes. But local representative councils became vehicles of pressure for
government spending, and the soaring deficits of local government bodies had to
be covered by the central government. Local government was encouraged to enter
into joint ventures with private investors, and these ventures stimulated an
alliance between government officials and the local rich that paralleled the
infitah alliance at the national level. Under Mubarak decentralization and local
autonomy became more of a reality, and local policies often reflected special
local conditions. Thus, officials in Upper Egypt often bowed to the powerful
Islamic movement there, while those in the port cities struck alliances with
importers[citation
needed]

[edit]
Kenya

Main article: Local authorities
of Kenya

[edit]
Mali

In recent years, Mali has undertaken an ambitious decentralization program,
which involves the capital district of Bamako, seven regions subdivided into 46
cercles, and 682 rural community districts (communes). The state retains an
advisory role in administrative and fiscal matters, and it provides technical
support, coordination, and legal recourse to these levels. Opportunities for
direct political participation, and increased local responsibility for
development have been improved.[citation
needed]

In August–September 1998, elections were held for urban council members, who
subsequently elected their mayors. In May/June 1999, citizens of the communes
elected their communal council members for the first time. Female voter turnout
was about 70% of the total, and observers considered the process open and
transparent. With mayors, councils, and boards in place at the local level,
newly elected officials, civil society organizations, decentralized technical
services, private sector interests, other communes, and donor groups began
partnering to further development.[citation
needed]

Eventually, the cercles will be reinstituted (formerly grouping
arrondissements) with a legal and financial basis of their own. Their councils
will be chosen by and from members of the communal councils. The regions, at the
highest decentralized level, will have a similar legal and financial autonomy,
and will comprise a number of cercles within their geographical boundaries. Mali
needs to build capacity at these levels, especially to mobilize and manage
financial resources.[citation
needed]

[edit]
Asia

[edit]
Afghanistan

Afghanistan was
traditionally divided into provinces governed by centrally appointed governors
with considerable autonomy in local affairs. There are currently 34 provinces.
During the Soviet occupation and the development of country-wide resistance,
local areas came increasingly under the control of mujaheddin
groups that were largely independent of any higher authority; local commanders,
in some instances, asserted a measure of independence also from the mujaheddin
leadership in Pakistan, establishing their
own systems of local government, collecting revenues, running educational and
other facilities, and even engaging in local negotiations. Mujaheddin groups
retained links with the Peshawar parties to ensure access to weapons that were
doled out to the parties by the government of Pakistan for distribution to
fighters inside Afghanistan.[citation
needed]

The Taliban set up a shura (assembly), made up of senior Taliban members and
important tribal figures from the area. Each shura made laws and collected taxes
locally. The Taliban set up a provisional government for the whole of
Afghanistan, but it did not exercise central control over the local shuras.[citation
needed]

The process of setting up the transitional government in June 2002 by the
Loya Jirga took many steps involving local government. First, at the district
and municipal level, traditional shura councils met to pick electors—persons who
cast ballots for Loya Jirga delegates. Each district or municipality had to
choose a predetermined number of electors, based on the size of its population.
The electors then traveled to regional centers and cast ballots, to choose from
amongst themselves a smaller number of loya jirga delegates— according to
allotted numbers assigned to each district. The delegates then took part in the
Loya Jirga.[citation
needed]

The warlords who rule various regions of the country exert local control. The
transitional government is attempting to integrate local governing authorities
with the central government, but it lacks the loyalty from he warlords necessary
to its governing authority. More traditional elements of political
authority—such as Sufi networks, royal lineage, clan strength, age-based wisdom,
and the like—still exist and play a role in Afghan society. Karzai is relying on
these traditional sources of authority in his challenge to the warlords and
older Islamist leaders. The deep ethnic, linguistic, sectarian, tribal, racial,
and regional cleavages present in the country create what is called "Qawm"
identity, emphasizing the local over higher-order formations. Qawm refers to the
group to which the individual considers himself to belong, whether a subtribe,
village, valley, or neighborhood. Local governing authority relies upon these
forms of identity and loyalty.[citation
needed]

[edit]
India

In India the local government is the third level of government apart from the
State and Central governments. There are two types of Local Government in
operation: Panchayats in rural areas and Municipalities in urban areas. The
Panchayats are a linked-system of local bodies with village panchayats (average
population about 5,000),panchayat samities at the intermediate level (average
population about 100,000), and district pancakes (average population about
1,000,000).[citation
needed]

Number of Panchayats and Municipalities in India, 2004

Panchayats Nos. Municipalities Nos. Gram (Village) 236,350 Municipal
Corporations 109 Samities (Intermediate) 6,795 Municipal Councils 1,432 Zilla
(District) 531 Nagar(Town)Panchayats 2,182 Total 243,676 Total 3,723 Source:
India, Twelfth Finance Commission Report, 2005

The rural panchayats created in around 1959 were based on the soviet model
(Yugoslav variety ) of tiering with hierarchical control to undertake mainly
agency tasks of the states through earmarked funding, with limited civic tasks
financed from assigned land revenue and local surcharge thereon. This resulted
in overlapping functional jurisdiction and a mismatch of functions and taxes
among the three tiers. The urban municipalities, created during the colonial
days of mid-19th century, survived the ‘socialist’ experiment and retained their
separate character as their English counterparts. In 1991, through two identical
constitutional amendments, one for the Panchayats and the other for the
Municipalities, a number of changes were introduced to strengthen local
governments in India ensure regularity of their election every five years and
limiting their period of super session or dissolution to six months, three sets
of local local governments for the Panchayats and the Municipalities,
reservation of seats and chairpersons for women and scheduled castes and tribes,
creation of independent state election commission (SEC), state finance
commission (SFC) linked with the central finance commission, and planning
committees at the districts (DPCs) and metropolitan areas (MPCs). In addition,
these amendments have indicated guidelines for the states to empower the local
governments through increased devolution of functions and taxes to them- these
are not been followed-up by the states. However, the CFCs have been allocating
discretionary grants for local governments passed through the states.[citation
needed] One lacuna in the existing arrangement is that the
Panchayats do not have a statutorily delegated list of functions on which its
revenues could be spent; this has created problems of financing their own
activities from their own revenues or through general grants from the CFC-SFC
arrangements. Panchayats act mostly as agencies for implementing their erstwhile
soviet plan schemes and projects on cost reimbursement (around 96% of their
activities) that do not have any maintenance component for transferred completed
works.[citation
needed] The major national parties are committed to improve the
effectiveness of the Panchayats through further central action to remedy to
situation.[citation
needed]

[edit]
Israel

The Israeli
Ministry of Interior recognizes four types of local government in Israel:[citation
needed]

Cities: 71
single-level urban municipalities, usually with populations exceeding 20,000
residents.

Local councils:
141 single-level urban or rural municipalities, usually with populations
between 2,000 and 20,000.

Regional
Councils: 54 bi-level municipalities which govern multiple rural
communities located in relative geographic vicinity. The number of residents
in the individual communities usually does not exceed 2000. There are no clear
limits to the population and land area size of Israeli regional councils.

Industrial
councils: Two single-level municipalities which govern large and complex
industrial areas outside cities. The local industrial councils are Tefen in Upper
Galilee (north of Karmiel) and Ramat
Hovav in the Negev (south of Beer Sheva).

[edit]
Japan

Main article: Districts of
Japan

Since the Meiji restoration, Japan has had a local
government system based on prefectures. The national
government oversees much of the country. Municipal governments were historical
villages. Now mergers are common for cost effective administration. There are 47
prefectures. They
have two main responsibilities. One is mediation between national and municipal
governments. The other is area wide administration.

[edit]
Malaysia

Main article: Local
government in Malaysia

Local government is the lowest level in the system of government in Malaysia—after
federal and state. It has the power to collect taxes (in the form of assessment
tax), to create laws and rules (in the form of by-laws) and to grant licenses
and permits for any trade in its area of jurisdiction, in addition to providing
basic amenities, collecting and managing waste and garbage as well as planning
and developing the area under its jurisdiction.

[edit]
Pakistan

Main article: Local
government in Pakistan

Local government is the third tier of government in Pakistan, After Federal
Government and Provincial Government.There are three types administrative
units of local government in Pakistan

District
Government Administration

Town Municipal Administrations

Union Council
Administrations

There are over five thousand local governments in Pakistan. Since 2001, these
have been led by democratically elected local councils, each headed by a Nazim
(the word means "supervisor" in Urdu, but is sometimes translated as Mayor).Some
districts, incorporating large metropolitan areas, are called City District. A
City District may contain subdivisions called Towns and Union
Councils. Council elections are held every four years.

[edit]
Palestinian
Authority

Local government in the Palestinian
National Authority-controlled areas are divided into three main groups:
Municipal councils, village council and local development committees.

Municipality
(Palestinian Authority): Depends on size of locality. Localities that
serve as the centers of governorates
and populations over 15,000 have 15-member councils. Localities with
populations over 15,000 residents have 13-member councils and localities with
populations between 4,000 and 15,000 have 9-member councils.

Village
Council (Palestinian Authority): Localities with populations between 800
and 1,500 have 3-member councils while those between 1,500 and -4,000
residents have 7-member councils.

[edit]
Philippines

Main article: Local
government in the Philippines

For a description of the arrangements in force, see the section on Regions
and Provinces in the article on the Philippines.

[edit]
Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia

There three levels of local government in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the
city council, the municipal council and the municipality.

The city council is the highest level of local government.

The municipal councils began in 2005 and is the second level of local
government.

The municipality is the third level of local government. There are 178
municipalities across the kingdom. The first began in Jeddah during the Othmanic
period. Each municipality is run by its city's mayor. As a collective the
kingdom's municipalities make up the Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affairs
(MoMRA).

[edit]
Turkey

Turkey has two
levels of local government; provinces (Turkish: iller ) and districts (Turkish:
ilçeler ).

The territory of Turkey is subdivided into 81 provinces for administrative
purposes. The provinces are organized into 7 regions for census purposes;
however, they do not represent an administrative structure. Each province is
divided into districts, for a total of 923 districts.

[edit]
Europe

[edit]
France

According to its Constitution of
1958, France has
3 levels of local government :

22 Régions (including Corsica) and 4 Régions
d'outre-mer (Réunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe
and French Guiana). Corsica is not
referred to as a "région" but simply as a "collectivité territoriale", that
merely means "local government area".

96 départements
and 5 départements
d'outre-mer (Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and French
Guiana). Paris is both a commune and a
département.

There are 36,679 municipalities (in
French: Communes).

However, in addition to the constitutional clauses of 1958, there now exist
specificities:

Intercommunalities are now a level of government between municipalities
and departments.

There exist 2 "pays d'outre-mer": French Polynesia and
New
Caledonia. The expression "pays d'outre-mer" is convenient as it can be
understood in French as both "overseas country" and "overseas
county/traditional area" (as evidenced by Pays de la Loire that
is a home région, not a home "country"). French Polynesia
works as an autonomous région, whereas New Caledonia has a
sui generis local government status with specific institutions and even
more autonomy.

[edit]
Germany

As a federal country, Germany is divided into a number
of states (Länder in German), which used to have wide powers, but whose
main remaining
power today (2004) is their ability to veto federal laws through their Bundesrat
representation.[citation
needed] The system of local government is described in the article
on States of Germany.

[edit]
Ireland

Main article: Local
government in the Republic of Ireland

Local government in Ireland is mainly based on a structure of 29 county
councils and five city councils. By far the main source of funding is national
government. Other sources include rates on commercial and industrial property,
housing rents, service charges and borrowing. The city and county councils
suffer from a combination of a lack of power to raise their own taxes and a
gradual and persistent erosion of their powers over time. Therefore, local
policy decisions are sometimes heavily influenced by the TDs who represent the
local constituency in Dáil Éireann (the
main chamber of parliament), and may be dictated by national politics rather
than local needs.

[edit]
Isle of Man

Main article: Local
government in the Isle of Man

Local government on the Isle of Man is based on the
concept of ancient parishes. There are three types of local authorities: a
borough corporation, town commissions, and parish commissions.

[edit]
Italy

The Italian
Constitution defines three levels of local government:

Regions: At present 5
of them (Valle d'Aosta, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Sardinia
and Sicily) have a special status and are given more power than the others.
The constitutional reform of 2001 gave more power to regions.

Provinces: They
mostly care to roads, forests, and education. They had more power in the
past.

Communes:
The Mayor and staff, caring for the needs of a single town or of a village and
neighbouring minor towns or villages.

Major cities also have an extra tier of local government named
Circoscrizione di Decentramento Comunale or, in some cities (e.g. Rome)
Municipio.

[edit]
Netherlands

Main articles: Municipal
politics in the Netherlands and Provincial
politics in the Netherlands

The Netherlands has three tiers
of government. There are two levels of local government in the Netherlands, the
provinces and the municipalities. The water boards are also part of the local
government.

The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces.
They form the tier of administration between the central government and the
municipalities. Each province is governed by a provincial council (Provinciale Staten).
Its members are elected every four years. The day-to-day management of the
province is in the hands of the provincial executive (Gedeputeerde
Staten). Members of the executive are chosen by the provincial council from
among its own members and like the members of the provincial council serve for a
period of four years. Members elected to the executive have to give up their
membership of the provincial council. The size of the executive varies from one
province to another. In Flevoland, the smallest of the
Dutch provinces, it has four members, while most other provinces have six or
seven. Meetings of the provincial executive are chaired by the Queen's
Commissioner. The Queen's Commissioner (Commissaris van de Koningin) is not
elected by the residents of the province, but appointed by the Crown (the Queen
and government ministers). The appointment is for six years and may be extended
by a second term. The Queen's Commissioner can be dismissed only by the Crown.
Queen's Commissioners play an important part in the appointment of municipal
mayors. When a vacancy arises, the Queen's Commissioner first asks the municipal
council for its views as to a successor, then writes to the Minister of the
Interior recommending a candidate.

Municipalities form the lowest tier of government in the Netherlands, after
the central government and the provinces. There are 458 of them (1 January
2006). The municipal council (Gemeenteraad) is the
highest authority in the municipality. Its members are elected every four years.
The role of the municipal council is comparable to that of the board of an
organisation or institution. Its main job is to decide the municipality's broad
policies and to oversee their implementation. The day-to-day administration of
the municipality is in the hands of the municipal executive (college
van burgemeester en wethouders, abbreviated to B&W), made up of the
mayor (Burgemeester) and the
aldermen. The executive implements national legislation on matters such as
social assistance, unemployment benefits and environmental management. It also
bears primary responsibility for the financial affairs of the municipality and
for its personnel policies. Aldermen (Wethouders) are appointed by
the council. Councillors can be chosen to act as aldermen. In that case, they
lose their seats on the council and their places are taken by other
representatives of the same political parties. Non-councillors can also be
appointed. Unlike councillors and aldermen, mayors are not elected (not even
indirectly), but are appointed by the Crown. Mayors chair both the municipal
council and the executive. They have a number of statutory powers and
responsibilities of their own. They are responsible for maintaining public order
and safety within the municipality and frequently manage the municipality's
public relations. As Crown appointees, mayors also have some responsibility for
overseeing the work of the municipality, its policies and relations with other
government bodies. Although they are obliged to carry out the decisions of the
municipal council and executive, they may recommend that the Minister of the
Interior quash any decision that they believe to be contrary to the law or
against the public interest. Mayors are invariably appointed for a period of six
years and are normally re-appointed automatically for another term, provided the
municipal council agrees. They can be dismissed only by the Crown and not by the
municipal council.

Water boards
are among the oldest government authorities in the Netherlands. They literally
form the foundation of the whole Dutch system of local government; from time
immemorial they have shouldered the responsibility for water management for the
residents of their area. In polders this mainly involves regulating the water
level. It has always been in the common interest to keep water out and polder
residents have always had to work together. That is what led to the creation of
water boards. The structure of the water boards varies, but they all have a
general administrative body, an executive board and a chairperson. The general
administrative body consists of people representing the various categories of
stakeholders: landholders, leaseholders, owners of buildings, companies and,
since recently, all the residents as well. Importance and financial contribution
decide how many representatives each category may delegate. Certain stakeholders
(e.g. environmental organisations) may be given the power to appoint members.
The general administrative body elects the executive board from among its
members. The government appoints the chairperson (Dijkgraaf) for a period of six
years. The general administrative body is elected for a period of four years. In
the past the administrative body was elected as individuals but from 2009 they
will be elected as party representatives. Unlike municipal council elections,
voters do not usually have to go to a polling station but can vote by mail.

[edit]
Norway

Norway's
regional administration is organised in 19 counties (fylke), with 18 of them
subdivided into 431 municipalities (kommune) per January 1, 2006. The municipal
sector is a provider of vital services to the Norwegian public, accounting for
about 20% of Norwegian GNP and 24% of total employment. Norway had 435
municipalities of varying size in 2003, each administered by an elected
municipal council. They are grouped into 19 counties (fylker), each governed by
an elected county council. Each county is headed by a governor appointed by the
king in council. Oslo is the only urban center that alone constitutes a county;
the remaining 18 counties consist of both urban and rural areas. County and
municipal councils are popularly elected every four years. The municipalities
have wide powers over the local economy, with the state exercising strict
supervision. They have the right to tax and to use their resources to support
education, libraries, social security, and public works such as streetcar lines,
gas and electricity works, roads, and town planning, but they are usually aided
in these activities by state funds.

[edit]
Spain

Spain is divided into 17 Autonomous
Communities, which in turn are divided into 50 provinces. There are also two
autonomous cities: those
of Ceuta and Melilla. Finally, each province comprises a number of
municipalities.

Each administrative entity is given powers, structure, and boundaries by a
law that was passed by the President of the
Government (or Prime Minister).

Law 7/1985,[1]
passed by the former Spanish President Felipe
González Márquez (socialist), lays down the procedure of the Local
Government. Every city in Spain used this Law until 2003. This year, the former
Spanish President José
María Aznar López (conservative), passed a Law (57/2003[2])
to modernize organic rules of those cities which had more than 250,000
inhabitants, and other important cities (like capital cities of Provinces with
at least 175,000 inhabitants). Also, it exists two other important Laws for
specifically Madrid (Law 22/2006[3])
and Barcelona (Law 1/2006[4]).
The main governing body in every city is called The Plenary (el Pleno). The
number of members that compose The Plenary varies depending on city's population
(for example, since 2007 Valencia has 33 members and Pamplona has 27). The name
given to the members of the Plenary is Councelor (Concejal). Those Councelors
are elected between city's inhabitants every four years by direct vote. After
being elected, Councelors meet in a special Plenary session to determine who
will be elected, between them, as City's Mayor. In the next days after the
election, the Mayor chooses some Councelors to set up the executive governing
body (Junta de Gobierno). After that, and for the next four years, City's Mayor
and the Junta de Gobierno will govern over the city according to their
competences (urbanism, some taxes, local police, licenses for specific
activities, cleaning services, etc.). Meanwhile, Councelors in the Plenary but
not part of the Junta de Gobierno (the opposition) will oversee Mayor's rule.
The Autonomous Community of Catalonia is divided in 4 provinces and more than
900 municipalities. Between these two tiers, there are 41 'Comarques' (singular,
Comarca), roughly equivalent to 'county'. The 'Comarca' is a 'commonwealth' of
municipalities with competences in several fields (Law 6/1987 of the Parliament
of Catalonia).

[edit]
Sweden

Sweden is
divided into counties (län) which in turn are divided into municipalities
(kommuner).

[edit]
Ukraine

Main article: Local government
in Ukraine

[edit]
United Kingdom

Main article: Local
government in the United Kingdom

The system of local government is different in each of the four countries of
the United Kingdom. In total,
there are 433 local authorities in the UK. 353 of these are in England, 26 in Northern Ireland, 32 in
Scotland and
22 are in Wales.

[edit]
England

Main article: Local government
in England

The most complex system is in England, the result of numerous
reforms and reorganisation over the centuries. The top level of sub-national
administration within England are the nine regions. The regions
are used by central government for various statistical purposes, and have Government Offices and
assorted other institutions. However only the London region has a directly
elected government. Only one regional referendum has been held to date to seek
consent for the introduction of direct elections elsewhere—in the northeast of
England—and this was soundly rejected by the electorate.

The layers of elected local government vary. In different areas the highest
tier of elected local government may be

Counties, which
may be

single tier unitary
authorities, or

divided into districts (also
known as boroughs in some areas)

districts, which
are separate unitary
authorities in some areas

metropolitan
districts (also called metropolitan boroughs) in some areas which are
similar to unitary authorities, but have joint
boards with other districts in the same metropolitan
county

Greater London, which
is divided into 32 London boroughs and the
City of London

In most areas there is a lower tier of government, civil
parishes, with limited functions. Most civil parishes are in rural areas,
but if the parish is a town the parish
council may be called a town council. In a few
cases the parish is a city,
and the parish council is called a city council.

Metropolitan counties, and a few non-metropolitan
counties, no longer have elected councils or administrative functions, and
their former functions are performed by districts. Such counties remain ceremonial
counties.

See also: metropolitan
and non-metropolitan counties of England

[edit]
Northern Ireland

Main article: Local
government in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is
divided into 26 districts. Local government in Northern Ireland does not carry
out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom. The
Northern Irish Department
of the Environment has announced plans to decrease the number of councils to
11.

[edit]
Wales

Main article: Local government
in Wales

Wales has a
uniform system of 22 unitary authorities, referred to as counties or county
boroughs. There are also communities,
equivalent to parishes.

[edit]
Scotland

Main article: Local
government of Scotland

Local government in Scotland is arranged on the
lines of unitary authorities,
with the nation divided into 32 council
areas.

[edit]
North America

[edit]
Canada

Main article: Local government
in Canada

Canada has a
federal system with three orders of government. The largest is the federal
government, followed by the provincial and local governments.[5]
Municipal governments are separately elected. They must follow laws and
guidelines as set out by their province, but are aloud to pass additional
by-laws and acts unique to them.

[edit]
Mexico

Mexico is a
Federal Republic made up by 31 states and a federal
district. Each state is divided in municipios,
while the federal district is divided in sixteen delegaciones.
Twenty-nine states of Mexico were created as administrative divisions by the
constitution of 1917, which grants them those powers not expressly vested in the
federal government; Mexico's two remaining territories, Baja California Sur
and Quintana Roo, achieved
statehood on 9 October 1974, raising the total to 31. Each state has a
constitution, a governor elected for six years, and a unicameral legislature,
with representatives elected by district vote in proportion to population. An
ordinary session of the legislature is held annually, and extraordinary sessions
may be called by the governor or the permanent committee. Bills may be
introduced by legislators, by the governor, by the state supreme court, and by
municipalities (a unit comparable to a US county). In addition to the 31 states,
there is also one federal district comprising Mexico City, whose governor
serves as a member of the cabinet. Many state services are supported by federal
subsidies.

The principal unit of state government is the municipality. Mexico's 2,378
municipalities are governed by municipal presidents and municipal councils.
State governors generally select the nominees for the municipal elections.
Municipal budgets are approved by the respective state governors. Until 1997,
the president appointed the mayor of Mexico City. Political reforms allowed the
first open elections in 1997. PRD candidate Cuauhtémoc
Cardenas Solórzano was elected mayor. When he resigned to run for the
presidency in 1999, Rosario Robles Berlanga became the first woman mayor of
Mexico City. In 2000, PRD's Andrés
Manuel López Obrador became the second democratically elected mayor of
Mexico City. López Obrador's popularity as mayor has made him a prime candidate
for the 2006 presidential election.

[edit]
United States

Main article: Local
government in the United States

Local
government in the United States refers to the general-purpose governments at
the county, city, town, or township level and
special-purpose governments, which include special districts and
school districts.[6]

Foreign observers from unitary states may view
the states under the federal
system of the United States as local
governments. This is not, however, the case because the states possess sovereignty within the
federal union, while local governments are not sovereign even within their
respective states. Local governments are municipal
corporations chartered by (and whose charters may be revoked by) the
legislature of the creating state;

[edit]
Oceania

[edit]
Australia

Main article: Local
government in Australia

Local government is the 3rd type of government in Australia, after Federal and
State.

[edit]
New Zealand

New
Zealand has a local government system comprising two complementary sets of
local authorities—regional councils
and territorial
authorities. There are currently 86 local authorities consisting of:

12 regional councils which cover most of New Zealand’s land area and

74 territorial authorities (comprising 59 district councils and 15 city
councils).

Five of the territorial authorities are unitary authorities,
which also have the powers of a regional council. They are the Nelson City
Council, the Gisborne, Marlborough and Tasman District Councils, and the Chatham
Islands Council.

Regional council areas are based on water catchment areas, whereas
territorial authorities are based on community of interest and road access.
Within a regional council area there are usually many city or district councils,
although city and district councils can be in multiple regional council
areas.

[edit]
South America

[edit]
Argentina

Argentina is a federation of
23 provinces and the federal capital of Buenos Aires. During the
19th century there was a bitter struggle between Buenos Aires and the interior
provinces, and there has long been an element of tension regarding the division
of powers between the central government and provincial bodies. The federal
government retains control over such matters as the regulation of commerce,
customs collections, currency, civil or commercial codes, or the appointment of
foreign agents. The provincial governors are elected every four years.

The constitutional "national intervention" and "state of siege" powers of the
president have been invoked frequently. The first of these powers was designed
to "guarantee the republican form of government in the provinces." Since the
adoption of the 1853 constitution, the federal government has intervened over
200 times, mostly by presidential decree. Under this authority, provincial and
municipal offices may be declared vacant, appointments annulled, and local
elections supervised. Between 1966 and 1973, all local legislatures were
dissolved and provincial governors were appointed by the new president. A
restoration of provincial and municipal government followed the return to
constitutional government in 1973. After the March 1976 coup, the federal
government again intervened to remove all provincial governors and impose direct
military rule over all municipalities. Since 1983, representative local
government has been in force again.

Until 1996, the President appointed the mayor of Buenos Aires, and by law,
the president and Congress controlled any legislation that affected the city.
Constitutional reforms that year led to an elected mayoral position, and a
60-member Poder Legislativo (legislative power). The members are elected by
proportional representation to four-year terms.

[edit]
Paraguay

Paraguay
is divided into 17 departments,
which are subdivided into districts, which, in turn, comprise municipalities
(the minimum requirement for a municipality is 3,000 persons) and rural
districts (partidos). A governor, elected by popular vote, runs each department.
Municipal government is exercised through a municipal board, chosen by direct
election, and an executive department. In the principal cities and capitals, the
executive department is headed by a mayor appointed by the minister of the
interior; in other localities, the mayor is appointed by the presidents of the
municipal boards.Police chiefs are appointed by the central government.

[edit]
Uruguay

Uruguay's
administrative subdivisions consisted of nineteen territories called departments
and governed by intendencias, which were subordinate to the central government
and responsible for local administration. They enforced national laws and
administered the nation's social and educational policies and institutions
within their territories. These territories had limited taxing powers, but they
could borrow funds and acquire property. They also had the power to establish
unpaid five-member local boards or town councils in municipalities other than
the departmental capital if the population was large enough to warrant such a
body.

Executive authority was vested in a governor (intendente), who administered
the department, and in a thirty-one-member departmental board (junta
departmental), which carried out legislative functions. These functions included
approval of the departmental budget and judicial actions, such as impeachment
proceedings against departmental officials, including the governor. At the
municipal level, a mayor (intendente municipal) assumed executive and
administrative duties, carrying out resolutions made by the local board (whose
members were appointed on the basis of proportional representation of the
political parties). The governor was required to comply with and enforce the
constitution and the laws and to promulgate the decrees enacted by the
departmental board. The governor was authorized to prepare the budget, submit it
for approval to the departmental board, appoint the board's employees, and, if
necessary, discipline or suspend them. The governor represented the department
in its relations with the national government and other departmental governments
and in the negotiation of contracts with public or private agencies.

Like the governor, the members of the departmental board and the mayor were
elected for five-year terms in direct, popular elections. A governor could be
reelected only once, and candidates for the post had to meet the same
requirements as those for a senator, in addition to being a native of the
department or a resident therein for at least three years before assuming
office. Departmental board members had to be at least twenty-three years of age,
native born (or a legal citizen for at least three years), and a native of the
department (or a resident for at least three years).

The board sat in the capital city of each department and exercised
jurisdiction throughout the entire territory of the department. It could issue
decrees and resolutions that it deemed necessary either on the suggestion of the
governor or on its own initiative. It could approve budgets, fix the amount of
taxes, request the intervention of the Accounts Tribunal for advice concerning
departmental finances or administration, and remove from office—at the request
of the governor—members of nonelective local departmental boards. The board also
supervised local public services; public health; and primary, secondary,
preparatory, industrial, and artistic education. Although Montevideo was the
smallest department in terms of area (divided into twenty-three geographic zones
that generally coincided with the electoral zones), its departmental board had
sixty-five members in 1990; all other departments had thirty-one-member boards
and a five-member executive council appointed by the departmental board, with
proportional representation from the principal political parties.

Data as of December 1990

[edit]
See also

Local
eGovernment

Municipal
Autonomy

Public
administration

Tertiary
government

Unincorporated
area

Eco
municipalities

Congress
of the Council of Europe

Local Government
Act

Local
Governance in Kerala

Definition
of levels of government

[edit]
References

^ http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/l7-1985.html

^ http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/l57-2003.html

^ http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/l22-2006.html

^ http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/l1-2006.html

^ Fact Sheet: Government in Canada

^ 2002
Census of Governments, U.S. Census Bureau

[edit]
External links

Look up local
government in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Local
government

Department of Local and Regional Democracy and Good
Governance—Council of Europe

The Congress in brief

Rural local self-government challenges and development
prospects by Rukhman Adukov

Women in Governance, India

Using a Model Municipal Performance Measurement System to Assess
Mid-sized Texas Cities.

Factors Contributing to Municipal Annexation among Medium Sized
Southern US Cities. Colin Rice

United Cities and Local Governments is an organisation for
cities, local governments and municipal associations throughout the
world.

Agenda 21 for culture is the reference document for cultural
programmes of local authorities

Rural Decentralization and Local Governance provides free
access to selected e-resources and news on local governance in developing
countries.

[edit]
New Zealand

Local Councils - Government Website

Local
Government Online

Local
Government New Zealand

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government"

Categories: Local
government

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