A minor administrative entity of a state that can occupy a locality or more than one
It is designated with the term of municipality to that minor administrative entity that groups a single locality or several of a state.
Composition, elements and authorities of the municipality
The municipality is made up of a territory with fixed limits and the population that inhabits it. The municipalities are governed and regulated by a collegiate body that, according to the place on the planet in which it is located, can be called city hall, mayoralty, council or municipality and are headed by an authority, generally popularly elected through the vote that is known as mayor, head of government, among the most common naming alternatives.
In Argentina, a few years ago, the head of this type of entity was called mayor, while today, he is known as the Head of the Buenos Aires Government, in the case of the municipality of the city of Buenos Aires. For their part, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia, to this same position, call him mayor.
The word has a Latin origin, from municipium, as the Romans called those independent entities, with their own legal personality, their own laws and their own heritage. They are born from the practice of the Romans to subdue those peoples they conquered. Thus they maintained the internal organization of the cities with a double administrative command, those corresponding to Rome and those of a local nature.
At present, and as we noted above, the municipalities are small territorial divisions of an administrative order that can encompass one or several localities and that are mainly based on neighborhood relations, with the pertinent division of powers and a unipersonal executive power.
The municipalities are made up of four elements: territory, population, political authorities and common good objectives that share.
Municipality is also called the physical place where municipal functions are carried out and the governing bodies also reside, which almost always are located in front of the main square of the town in question..
On the other hand, in European countries such as Italy, France and Sweden this type of entity is popularly known as communes, which comes from the joint reference of customary rights of a given place.
And on the Latin American side, just as there are variants in terms of the denomination there are in terms of the responsibilities they hold ... in Colombia they have fiscal, administrative and political autonomy and their main task is to ensure well-being and the best quality life of the inhabitants.
And in the case of Argentina, more precisely in the province of Buenos Aires, each municipality coincides with a party.
As we explained, municipalities have already existed since Ancient Rome as legal entities that were given the possibility of having their own patrimony. Meanwhile, the current municipality, as we know it today, emerged in the Middle Ages as an intermediate social, political and administrative group, preserving its autonomy and with protection from the constitution.
Respond to the demands of neighbors
The primary function assigned to them today is to attend to the needs of the neighbors that comprise them. The municipal chiefs have, or should strive to ensure that this is the case, a closer, almost interpersonal, contact with the citizens who inhabit the municipality that they direct and this will of course influence that the demands are channeled effectively and of course all reach a positive resolution.
As administrative and political leaders, they will have to provide the neighbors with essential basic services such as street cleaning, waste collection, public lighting, care of green spaces, which includes tree pruning, opening and maintenance. of public roads, clubs, cemeteries, cultural centers, spaces for recreation, among others.
The financing to manage the aforementioned services is obtained from municipal taxes or fees that citizens must pay. Depending on the country and current legislation, it can be monthly or bimonthly and the area of the municipality in which the neighbor's home is located has a lot to do with the value, that is, if the neighbor lives in a neighborhood that has a quotation. and higher real estate valuation must pay more than the municipal rate while in the opposite case it will be much lower.
