A municipality or "general-purpose district" (compare with: "special-purpose district") is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or villagegovernment.
Municipalities are not necessarily the same as townships.
In most countries, this is the smallest administrative subdivision that has its own democraticallyelectedrepresentative leadership. In several European countries, municipalities as second level entities are referred to as communes.
Municipalities as second level entities
- In Australia, a municipality is a city, or shire and is a subdivision of a state - In Austria, a municipality (Gemeinde) is part of a district (Bezirk), which is in turn part of a state (Bundesland).
- In Belgium, a municipality (gemeente/commune) is part of a province (provincie/province)
- In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a municipality (općina or opština) is
- part of a canton (kanton)
- a subdivision (grouped in regions)
- In Brazil, a municipality (município) is part of a state (estado)
- In Canada, a municipality is a city, town, township, county, or regional municipality which has been incorporated by statute by the legislatures of the Provinces and territories of Canada. It is also a specific designation for certain municipalities in Quebec and Ontario.
- In Chile, a municipality (comuna) is part of a province (provincia)
- In Croatia, a municipality (općina) is part of a county (županija)
- In Denmark, a municipality (kommune) is part of a county (amt)
- In Finland, a municipality (kunta/kommun) is part of a province (lääni/län)
- In France, a municipality (commune) is part of a department (département)
- In Germany, a municipality (Gemeinde) is part of a district (Kreis). Larger entities of the same level are named town (Stadt).
- In Greece, a municipality is either an urban demoi or rural koinotetes which is then part of a prefecture (nomos) and then a larger region known as a periphery.
- In Italy, a municipality (comune) is part of a province (provincia) which is part of a region (regione).
- In Japan, any government other than the Japanese national government is called a municipality.
- In Mexico, a municipality (municipio) is a subdivision of a state (estado) and a borogh (delegación) is a subdivision of the Federal District (see municipalities of Mexico and Boroughs of the Mexican Federal District).
- In the Netherlands, a municipality (gemeente) is part of a province (provincie).
- Every part of mainland New Zealand is part of either a "city" (mostly urban) or a "district" (mostly rural). The term "municipality" has become rare in New Zealand since about 1979 and has no legal status.
- In Norway, a municipality (kommune) is part of a county (fylke)
- In the Philippines, a municipality (bayan) is part of a province (lalawigan) and is composed of barangays.
- In Poland, a municipality (commune) (gmina) is a part of a county (powiat).
- In Portugal, a municipality (município) is subdivision of a district (distritos).
- In Puerto Rico, a municipality (municipio) is a city. Each municipality has an elected mayor.
- In Romania, a municipality (municipiu) is a town or a city ranked by law at this level. See Municipality in Romania for more information.
- In Serbia, a municipality (opština) is part of a county (okrug)
- In South Africa, municipalities are subdivisions of a province, and are ranked by size. In descending order: metropolitan, district, local.
- In Sweden, a municipality (kommun) is part of a county (län).
- In Switzerland, a municipality (commune/Gemeinde/comune) is part of a canton (canton/Kanton/cantone) and defined by cantonal law.
- In the United States, the entities that have status as a municipality vary from state to state. Cities, towns, boroughs, or villages are common terms for municipalities. Townships, counties, and parishes are not generally considered to be municipalities, although there are exceptions. In some states, towns have a non-municipal status similar to townships.
First level entities and other forms of municipalities
1825: The constitutional congress convened in that year orders that the state be divided into seven departments: Comayagua, Santa Bárbara, Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, Yoro, Olancho, and Gracias (later renamed Lempira).
1834: An extraordinary constitutional assembly reduces the number of departments to four: this attempt fails to prosper, and the 1825 division remains in force.
1869: Congress orders the creation of the departments of La Paz (broken away from Comayagua), El Paraíso (from Tegucigalpa and Olancho), Copán (from Gracias), and La Mosquitia (from Yoro).
1872: A department called Victoria is ordered to be split from Choluteca, but this never comes into effect. Islas de la Bahía department is founded (the islands were ceded to Honduras by the United Kingdom in 1860).
1881: Parts of Yoro and La Mosquitia are separated to form Colón department.
1883: Intibucá department is formed from sections of La Paz and Gracias.
1893: Valle department (split from Choluteca) and Cortés department (split from Santa Bárbara) are created.
1902: Parts of Yoro and Colón are taken to form the new department of Atlántida.
1906: Ocotepeque department is created by dividing the territory of Copán.
1957: Colón is divided in two to create Gracias a Dios department.
Olancho is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. It is the largest of all the departments. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Olancho resisted government authority from Tegucigalpa to the point of causing a civil war. To this day, the old independent sentiments persist among Olanchanos, although the department's role as an agricultural producer has made it an integral part of the Honduran economy.
The departmental capital is Juticalpa.
The department covers a total surface area of 24,351
km² and has an estimated population of 408,869.
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1118288079&men=gcis&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&srt=pnan&col=aohdq&pt=a&va=x World Gazetteer – Largest Agglomerations in the World]
Categorie:StadAfrika
