Multi-tier Local Government
In several countries, where there is not local autonomy, mayors are often appointed by some branch of the federal or regional government. In some cities, subdivisions such as boroughs may have their own mayors; this is the case, for example, with the arrondissements of Paris, Montreal, and Mexico City. In Belgium, the capital, Brussels, is administratively one of the federation's three regions, and is the only city subdivided, without the other regions' provincial level, into 19 rather small municipalities, which each have an elected—formally appointed—Burgomaster (i.e., Mayor, responsible to his / her elected council); while Antwerp, the other major metropolitan area, has one large city (where the boroughs, former municipalities merged into it, elect a lower level, albeit with very limited competence) and several smaller surrounding municipalities, each under a normal Burgomaster as in Brussels.
In the People's Republic of China, the Mayor (市長) may be the administrative head of any municipality, provincial, prefecture-level, or county-level. The Mayor is usually the most recognized official in cities, although the position is the second-highest-ranking official in charge after the local Communist Party Secretary. In principle, the Mayor (who also serves as the Deputy Communist Party Secretary of the city) is responsible for managing the city administration while the Communist Party Secretary is responsible for general policy and managing the party bureaucracy, but in practice the roles blur, frequently causing conflict.
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Famous quotes containing the words local and/or government:
“Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, as it is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“It does seem strange that the only place in the government which I would have liked to fill myself I am forced to give to another.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)