Local Management

The local administration is a type of territorial administration, that is, it has as its fundamental element a specific territory, in which it deploys its powers, characterized by its smaller size and, in turn, due to its greater proximity to citizens.

They are typically local administration bodies - "municipal administration" or "communal administration" - town councils or municipalities, since they deploy their powers over a territory called a municipality or commune.

Regulation by country

Argentina

It is organized into nine geographic regions, which contain the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country and where the headquarters of the federal government is located.

The provinces are federal entities and divide their territory into departments (partidos in the province of Buenos Aires). In turn, these are made up of municipalities. The departments, in general, do not have administrative functions, although in the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja each department is a municipality.

It should be noted that the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in turn, is divided into 15 communes and subdivided into 48 neighborhoods.

This way, it breaks down:

• Geographical regions: the Pampa, the Sierras Pampeanas, Cuyo, the Argentine Northwest (NOA), Chaco, Mesopotamia, the Western Pampa, Patagonia, and Antarctica. They have no administrative value and are merely geographical.
• Provinces, which are the federated states that make up the nation, according to the principles of federalism established in the national constitution.
• Departments and parties in the province of Buenos Aires, which are the territorial divisions of second order.
• Municipalities (in the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja are also departments), which are constituted in local government entities on a certain portion of territory.

Chile

In Chile the division for the purposes of local administration is the communes. The local administration of a commune, or group of communes, resides in a municipality, made up of a mayor and a communal council, made up of councilors. The mayor is elected by direct popular vote, by a simple majority of votes and without a second round, every four years. Mayors and councilors can be re-elected indefinitely.

The councilors are elected on the same day as the mayor, but with a separate vote, or electoral card; and through a proportional representation system of allocating figure or D'Hont system. The number of councilors in each commune depends on its population: Communes with up to 70,000 voters registered in their Electoral Registry, elect 6 councilors; communes with between 70,000 and 150,000 voters elect 8; and those with more than 150,000 voters elect 10 positions. There may be municipalities that administer more than one commune. Currently this only occurs in the case of Cape Horn and Antarctica. Today, in Chile there are 345 municipalities and 346 communes.

For the 2016 municipal elections, a total of 2,240 councilors will be elected throughout the country. 22 communes will elect 10 positions; 41 municipalities will have 8 councilors; and the remaining 282 will have 6 councillors.

In the system of the 1925 Constitution, each commune elected between 5 and 15 aldermen (as the councilors were called then), through an electoral system of proportional representation, very similar to the current one. The simple communes elected 5 councilors; the department capitals elected 7; and the provincial capitals elected 9 positions. For its part, Valparaíso had 12 councilors, Santiago 15, and Viña del Mar (simple commune) had 9 councilors. As a general rule, the councilors elected the mayor from among their members, except in Santiago, Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. In these communes the mayor was appointed directly by the President of the Republic, who could appoint a councilor or another person. These mayors held office for the same amount of time as the councilors.

Spain

In Spain, its main regulation is found in the Spanish Constitution, in its Title VIII, which talks about the Organization of the State.

Due to the territorial element, it is characterized by being generally smaller in size than the state and regional Administration, comprising various units. From largest to smallest size we have:

• Deputations, whether provincial or foral, with the provinces or historical territories as territorial bases.
• Island Knights (Canaries) or Island Councils (Baleares), with the island as a territorial base.
• Regions and communities, recognized only in some autonomous communities as subjects of public law.
• Town halls, with the municipality as a territorial base.
• Pedanías, which is inferior to the municipality; in some autonomous communities, the administrative units under the municipality receive names from that region.