A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term municipality may also mean the governing body of a given municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district.
The English word is derived from French municipalité, which in turn derives from the Latin municipalis, based on the word for social contract (municipium), referring originally to the Latin communities that supplied Rome with troops in exchange for their own incorporation into the Roman state (granting Roman citizenship to the inhabitants) while permitting the communities to retain their own local governments (a limited autonomy).
A municipality can be any political jurisdiction, from a sovereign state such as the Principality of Monaco, to a small village such as West Hampton Dunes, New York.
The territory over which a municipality has jurisdiction may encompass:
only one populated place such as a city, town, or village
several such places (e.g., early jurisdictions in the U.S. state of New Jersey (1798–1899) as townships governing several villages, municipalities of Mexico, municipalities of Colombia)
only parts of such places, sometimes boroughs of a city, such as the 34 municipalities of Santiago, Chile.
Contents
Political powers
Powers of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state. Municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, and corporate income tax, but may also receive substantial funding from the state. In some European countries, such as Germany, municipalities have the constitutional right to supply public services through municipally owned public utility companies.
Terms in various countries
Municipality
Terms cognate with "municipality", mostly referring to territory or political structure, are Spanish municipio (Spain) and municipalidad (Chile), Catalan municipi, Portuguese município.
In Brazil, a município is the local government, recognized by the Brazilian Federal Constitution and established through state constitutions. It is the smallest territorial division holding executive and legislative powers. Since the Constitution of 1988, all municípios are members of the federation. Colloquially, the local population uses the terms municipality and city interchangeably, although the constitution defines "city" as the seat of the municipality.
Commune
In many countries, terms cognate with "commune" are used, referring to the community living in the area and the common interest. These include terms:
in Romance languages, such as in French commune (France, French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland, French-speaking Africa, e.g. Benin), in Italian comune (Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland, e.g. Ticino), in Portuguese comuna (Angola), in Romanian comună (Romania), and in Spanish comuna (Chile);
in Nordic languages such as in Danish and Norwegian kommune (Denmark, Norway), in Faroese kommuna (Faroe Islands), and in Swedish kommun (Sweden, Finland);
in West Germanic languages such as in Dutch gemeente (Netherlands, Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium), Luxembourgish Gemeng (Luxembourg) and German Gemeinde (Austria, Germany);
in Finnish kunta (Finland);
in Ukrainian hromada (Ukraine); and
in Polish gmina (Poland).
The same terms "Gemeente" (Dutch) or "Gemeinde" (German) may be used for church congregations or parishes, for example, in the German and Dutch Protestant churches.
Other terms
In Greece, the word Δήμος (demos) is used, also meaning 'community'; the word is known in English from the compound democracy (rule of the people).
In some countries, the Spanish term ayuntamiento, referring to a municipality's administration building, is extended via synecdoche to denote the municipality itself. In Moldova and Romania, both municipalities (municipiu; urban administrative units) and communes (comună; rural units) exist, and a commune may be part of a municipality.
In many countries, comparable entities may exist with various names.
English-speaking
In Australia, the term local government area (LGA) is used in place of the generic municipality. Here, the "LGA Structure covers only incorporated areas of Australia. Incorporated areas are legally designated parts of states and territories over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility."
In Canada, municipalities are local governments established through provincial and territorial legislation, usually within general municipal statutes. Types of municipalities within Canada include cities, district municipalities, municipal districts, municipalities, parishes, rural municipalities, towns, townships, villages, and villes among others. The province of Ontario has different tiers of municipalities, including lower, upper, and single tiers. Types of upper tier municipalities in Ontario include counties and regional municipalities. Nova Scotia also has regional municipalities, which include cities, counties, districts, or towns as municipal units.
In India, a municipality (also known as municipal council) is an urban local body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more (the criteria varies from state to state). However, there are exceptions to that, as previously municipalities were constituted in urban centers with population over 20,000, so all the urban bodies which were previously classified as municipality were reclassified as municipality even if their population was under 100,000. it interacts directly with the state government, though it is administratively part of the district it is located in. Generally, smaller district cities and bigger towns have a municipality. Municipalities are also a form of local self-government entrusted with some duties and responsibilities, as enshrined in the Constitutional (74th Amendment) Act,1992.
In the United Kingdom, the term was used until the Local Government Act 1972 came into effect in 1974 in England and Wales, and until 1975 in Scotland and 1976 in Northern Ireland, "both for a city or town which is organized for self-government under a municipal corporation, and also for the governing body itself. Such a corporation in Great Britain consists of a head as a mayor or provost, and of superior members, as aldermen and councillors". Since local government reorganisation, the unit in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is known as a district, and in Scotland as a council area. A district may be awarded borough or city status, or can retain its district title.
Chinese-speaking
In the People's Republic of China, a direct-administered municipality (直辖市 in pinyin: zhíxiáshì) is a municipality with equal status to a province: Beijing Municipality, Chongqing Municipality, Shanghai Municipality, and Tianjin Municipality (see also: Direct-administered municipalities of China).
In the Republic of China (Taiwan), a special municipality (直轄市 in pinyin: zhíxiáshì) is a municipality with equal status to a province: Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei, and Taoyuan (see also: Special municipality (Taiwan)).
Municipal corporation
Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, which can include (but is not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owned corporations.
Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which they are located. Often, this event is marked by the award or declaration of a municipal charter. A city charter or town charter or municipal charter is a legal document establishing a municipality, such as a city or town.
When a municipality revokes its right to self-government it disincorporates.
By country
There are 12 city corporations in Bangladesh. Two of them are located in the capital Dhaka and the remaining 10 are located in the most populous cities of the eight divisions. They carry out major works in the cities and perform socio-economic and civic functions. In addition, there are 330 municipalities in the eight divisions of Bangladesh. A city corporation is a much stronger and larger Local governing body than a municipal corporation. This is because a city corporation consists of a metropolitan city of a district and a municipal corporation consists of a municipal area in a sub-district.
In Canada, charters are granted by provincial authorities.
Municipal corporations are the local bodies responsible for governing large urban areas in India. Their establishment is mandated by the 74th amendment, and each municipal corporation is established through and governed by municipal acts passed by state legislatures. The Greater Chennai Corporation is the oldest municipal corporation in India, and the oldest in the Commonwealth outside Britain.
The title "corporation" was used in boroughs from soon after the Norman conquest until the Local Government Act 2001. Under the 2001 act, county boroughs were renamed "cities" and their corporations became "city councils"; other borough corporations were renamed "borough councils".
After the Partition of Ireland, the corporations in the Irish Free State were Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford (county boroughs) and Drogheda, Kilkenny, Sligo, Clonmel, and Wexford (non-county boroughs). Dún Laoghaire gained borough status in 1930 as "The Corporation of Dun Laoghaire". Galway's borough status, lost in 1840, was restored in 1937; it was formally styled "the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Galway", but referred to as "the Corporation".
The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 allowed municipal corporations to be established within the new provinces of New Zealand. The term fell out of favour following the abolition of the provinces in 1876.
Municipal corporations are local government bodies responsible for running the city system of Pakistan. They have been established under their respective Local Government Acts of the provinces. Article 140-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, introduced by the 18th Amendment in 2010, mandates that each province must establish a local government system by law and devolve political, administrative, and financial power to elected local representatives.
Municipal corporations as enterprises
According to one definition of the term, municipal corporations are "organisations with independent corporate status, managed by an executive board appointed primarily by local government officials, and with majority public ownership". Some such corporations rely on revenue from user fees, distinguishing them from agencies and special districts funded through taxation, although this is not always the case. Such municipal corporations result from a process of "externalization", and require different skills and orientations from the respective local governments, and follow common changes in the institutional landscape of public services. They are argued to be more efficient than government bureaucracies, having been observed as generally more successful in providing most public goods and services, despite seeming to have higher failure rates initially, hypothetically because of their legal and managerial status.
Municipalities by country
In Portuguese language usage, there are two words to distinguish the territory and the administrative organ. When referring to the territory, the word concelho is used, when referring to the organ of State, the word município is used. This differentiation is in use in Portugal and some of its former overseas provinces, but it is no longer in use in Brazil, where município refers to the territorial boundaries and prefeitura is its administrative organ.