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:
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 cognate with "municipality", mostly referring to territory or political structure,[clarification needed] are Spanish municipio (Spain) and municipalidad (Chile), Catalan municipi, Portuguese município.
In many countries, terms cognate with "commune" are used, referring to the community living in the area and the common interest. These include terms:
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.
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.[citation needed]
In many countries, comparable entities may exist with various names.
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.
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.[clarification needed] 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.
The ancient boroughs of England and Wales were typically incorporated by a royal charter, though some were boroughs by prescription. The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and Municipal Corporations Act 1882 abolished the corporations of rotten boroughs and other small rural areas. The Local Government Act 1888 aligned the powers of the remaining borough corporations with those of the new urban district councils. All borough corporations were replaced under the Local Government Act 1972, with corporations now being designated as "councils", with the exception of the City of London Corporation.
The corporations of the burghs of Scotland were similar in origin and were reformed or replaced in the nineteenth century before being abolished by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The Irish borough corporations within what is now Northern Ireland were reformed by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 and Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 and replaced by the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.
Most U.S. states and territories have at least two tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. Louisiana uses the term parish, Alaska uses the term borough, and Connecticut uses the term planning region for what the U.S. Census Bureau terms county equivalents in those states. Civil townships or towns are used as subdivisions of a county in 20 states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
Population centers may be organized into incorporated municipalities of several types, including the city, town, borough, and village. The types and nature of these municipal entities vary from state to state. In addition to these general-purpose local governments, states may also create special-purpose local governments. Depending on the state, local governments may operate under their own charters or under general law, or a state may have a mix of chartered and general-law local governments. Generally, in a state having both chartered and general-law local governments, the chartered local governments have more local autonomy and home rule. Municipalities are typically subordinate to a county government, with some exceptions. Certain cities, for example, have consolidated with their county government as consolidated city-counties. In Virginia, cities are completely independent from the county in which they would otherwise be a part. In some states, particularly in New England, towns form the primary unit of local government below the state level, in some cases eliminating the need for county government entirely. Many rural areas and even some suburban areas of many states have no municipal government below the county level.
In addition to counties and municipalities, states often create special purpose authorities, such as school districts and districts for fire protection, sanitary sewer service, public transportation, public libraries, public parks or forests, water resource management, and conservation districts. Such special purpose districts may encompass areas in multiple municipalities or counties. According to the US Census Bureau's data collected in 2012, there were 89,004 local government units in the United States. This data shows a decline from 89,476 units since the last census of local governments performed in 2007.[needs update]
Each of the five permanently inhabited U.S. territories is also subdivided into smaller entities. Puerto Rico has 78 municipalities, and the Northern Mariana Islands has four municipalities. Guam has villages, the U.S. Virgin Islands has districts, and American Samoa has districts and unorganized atolls.
Each Indian Reservation is subdivided in various ways. For example, the Navajo Nation is subdivided into agencies and chapter houses, while the Blackfeet Nation is subdivided into communities.
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[clarification needed] 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.
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| Country | Term | Example | Subdivision of | Quantity | Notes | Further reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | município | Blumenau, Cuiabá, Maceió, Porto Alegre | a state (estado), which is part of a region (região) | 5,570 | A municipality usually is divided in the urban part, the city (cidade), and the rural part. | List of municipalities of Brazil |
| Croatia | Općina | Fužine, Bosiljevo, Klana, Kršan | Županija (county in English) | 428 | A municipality usually has center village of same name. Exception: Vinodolska općina - center village: Bribir. | Municipalities of Croatia |
| Denmark | kommune | Aarhus, Frederiksberg | Region | 98 | Municipalities of Denmark | |
| Finland | Kunta | Kerava | Region | 308 | Municipalities of Finland | |
| Greece | Deme / Δήμος | Athens, Thessaloniki | 332 | A municipality usually is divided in Municipal Units and them into Communities. | List of municipalities of Greece | |
| Ireland | bardas, contae or comhairle | Baile Átha Cliath | a province (cúige) or a county (contae) | 31 | A municipality usually has authority of the whole county. In some cases however, authority is reduced to a subdivision of the county for highly populated regions, especially in Dublin (Baile Átha Cliath) | Local governments in the Republic of Ireland |
| Italy | Comune | Venezia | a comune which is part of a province (provincia) which is part of a region (regione). | 7,896 | Municipio is used for subdivisions of larger comuni; in some cases, municipalities are united to form mountain communities (comunità montane) | List of municipalities of Italy |
| India | municipality (nagar palika, or nagar parishad in Hindi) | Bangaon Municipality | a state or union territory | 1937 | It is an administrative unit that governs a specific urban area, such as a town or city. Municipalities are established under state legislation and operate under the framework of the relevant state municipal acts. Municipalities have their own elected bodies, which typically include a mayor or chairperson and councilors representing different wards or constituencies within the urban area. | Municipal governance in India |
| Netherlands | municipality (gemeente) | a province or special municipality which doesn't fall under any province but directly under the central government. | 345 | It is the lowest administrative unit of the country that governs a specific area, such as a town or city. Municipalities fall under the Dutch Municipalities Act. It is governed by a directly elected municipal council, a municipal executive and a mayor. | Municipal council (Netherlands) | |
| Philippines | bayan, munisipyo or munisipalidad | Janiuay | a province (lalawigan or probinsya, except for Pateros) | 1,488 | A municipality is the official name for a town and is divided into barangays. Municipalities with a larger population and income may become a city through a city charter. | Municipalities of the Philippines |
| Portugal | município | Lisbon, Sintra, Vila Nova de Gaia | 18 districts and 2 autonomous regions (Azores and Madeira) | 308 | Usually a municipality is named after its largest or historically most important town or city. Municipalities are typically much larger than the city or town after which they are named. | List of municipalities of Portugal |
| Puerto Rico | municipio | Arecibo | none | 78 | municipality consists of an urban area (termed a city or town) plus all of its surrounding barrios comprising the municipality. It has a popularly elected administration and a municipal mayor. The seat of the municipal government is located in such urban area and serves the entire municipal jurisdiction. | Municipalities of Puerto Rico |
| Sweden | kommun | Stockholm Municipality, Gothenburg Municipality, Malmö Municipality, Ale Municipality | a region (region), the 21 self-governing areas consisting of one or more municipalities) a county (län), subdivision of the national state into 21 areas administered by County administrative boards. Regions and counties often follow the same geographical borders. |
290 | According to the Instrument of Government, Swedish democracy is realised through a parliamentary form of government and through local selfgovernment. Municipalities are independent of the regions and counties in which they are located. Before 1971, municipalities were incorporated as either cities (stad), market towns (köping) or rural municipalities (landskommun). The city-label is still used for marketing purposes, but lacks legal status and cannot be used in formal governing documents. For resident and land registration purposes, Sweden is also divided in 2 523 districts (distrikt), based on the historic Church of Sweden parishes of 1999. The districts lack authority, governing body and agency. |
Municipalities of Sweden |
| Ukraine | Hromada / Громада | Vovchansk hromada, Staryi Ostropil hromada | a region (oblast) | 1469 | A hromada usually is divided in Starosta Districts (старостинські округи) or City Raions (міські райони/райони в місті). | List of hromadas of Ukraine |
All public power in Sweden proceeds from the people. Swedish democracy is founded on the free formation of opinion and on universal and equal suffrage. It is realised through a representative and parliamentary form of government and through local selfgovernment. Public power is exercised under the law.
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