Prefect - Modern Sub-national Administration

Modern Sub-national Administration

• In France (and some former French or Belgian colonies, such as Rwanda), a prefect (préfet) is the State's representative in a département. His agency is called the préfecture, and his circumscription is also called a prefecture in some former French republics. Sub-prefects (sous-préfets, sous-préfecture) operate in the arrondissements under his control. In Paris, the prefect of police is the head of the city's police.
• In Italy, a prefect (prefetto) is the State's representative in a province. His office is called Prefettura - Ufficio Territoriale del Governo . They have political responsibility and coordinate the local quaestor (Questore), who has technical responsibility, to enforce laws when public safety is threatened. The office existed yet in the Italian states before the Italian unification (1861), with various names (e.g., in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies the name was "intendente"); the born of the office, in Italian system, dates from the times on Napoleonic occupation on Italy (1802), so it celebrates 200 years of life in 2002; the current name dates from 1861, under the government of Bettino Ricasoli, when a law extended the Kingdom of Sardinia administrative system to whole Italy. In the early years the job entailed a more vigorous and continuous application of central state authority in imposing regulations in the fields of education, public works, sanitary provision and the nomination of mayors and provincial deputies. Today it plays a regulatory role between the municipalities and other local governments.
• In some Spanish-speaking states in Latin America, following a French-type model introduced in Spain itself, prefects were installed as governors; remarkably, in some republics (like Peru) two levels were constructed from the French model: a prefecture and a department, the one being only part of the other.
• In Greece a prefect (nomarhis, νομάρχης) used to be the elected head of one of the 54 prefectures (nomarhies, νομαρχίες), which were second-level administrative divisions, between the first-level Peripheries (periferies, περιφέρειες) and the third-level Municipalities (demoi, δήμοι), until their abolition with the Kallikratis reform in 2010. The Prefectural elections (popular ballot) would be held every four years along with the Municipal elections. The last Prefectural elections in Greece were held in October 2006.
• In Romania, a prefect (prefect) is the appointed governmental representative in a county (judeţ) and in the Municipality of Bucharest, in an agency called prefectură. The prefect's role is to represent the national government at local level, acting as a liaison and facilitating the implementation of National Development Plans and governing programmes at local level.
• In Quebec, a prefect (préfet) is the head of a regional county municipality.
• In Brazil, a prefect (prefeito) is the elected head of the executive branch in a municipality. Larger cities, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, etc., also have sub-prefects, appointed to their offices by the elected prefect.
• In Georgia, a prefect (პრეფექტი) was the head of the executive branch in a municipality, appointed by the President of Georgia from 1990 to 1992.