Geneva - Government

Government

See also: List of mayors of Geneva

The City Council (Conseil administratif) constitutes the executive government of the City of Geneva and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors, each presiding over a department. The president of the executive department acts as mayor. City president in 2012 is Rémy Pagani. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the City Parliament are carried by the City Council. The election of the City Council is held every four years. The executive body holds its meetings in the Palais Eynard, near the Parc des Bastions. The building was built between 1817 and 1821 in Neoclassical style.

The City Parliament (Conseil municipal) holds legislative power. It is made up of 80 members, with elections held every four years. The City Parliament decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the City Council and the administration. The sessions of the City Parliament are public. Unlike members of the City Council, members of the City Parliament are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Geneva allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Parliament. The Parliament holds its meetings in the Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville), in the old city.

In 2010 Geneva City Council was made up of two representatives of the SDP (Social Democratic Party, one of whom is the mayor), one member of the FDP (Free Democratic Party), one member of the Green Party and one member of the À gauche Toute party.

Read more about this topic:  Geneva

Famous quotes containing the word government:

    “In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority.”
    —James Madison (1751–1836)

    “A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    “If there was twenty ways of telling the truth and only one way of telling a lie, the Government would find it out. It’s in the nature of governments to tell lies.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)