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Concept
Municipality
Summary
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 term is derived from French municipalité and Latin municipalis. The English word municipality derives from the Latin social contract municipium (derived from a word meaning "duty holders"), referring 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.
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, are Spanish municipio (Spain) and municipalidad (Chile), Catalan , Portuguese município.
Official source
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Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (3)
ENV-361: Urban and regional planning and Management
Les étudiants comprennent les problématiques principales du développement territorial. Les outils d'aménagement du territoire (du niveau fédéral au niveau communal) leur sont familiers. Ils connaissen
ENV-460: Land management and ground law
Ce cours présente les fondements du droit foncier et les apports des principaux instruments de gestion foncière pour la mise en œuvre du développement territorial.
AR-454: Land use planning
Le cours donne les bases de la compréhension de l'aménagement du territoire, de son rôle politique à ces outils.
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America and consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.
Capital city
A capital city or just capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the government's offices and meeting places; the status as capital is often designated by its law or constitution. In some jurisdictions, including several countries, different branches of government are in different settlements, sometimes meaning multiple official capitals.
Administrative division
Administrative divisions (also Administrative units, Administrative regions, Subnational entities, or a Constituent states (as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent Sovereign state is divided. Such a unit usually has an administrative authority with the power to take administrative or policy decisions for its area. Usually, Sovereign states have several levels of administrative division. The common names for the principal (largest) Administrative divisions are: States (i.