Municipal corporation is the legal term for alocal governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to)cities,counties,towns,townships,charter townships,villages, andboroughs.[1] The term can also be used to describemunicipally owned corporations.[1][2][3]
Municipal incorporation occurs when suchmunicipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which they are located. Often, this event is marked by the award or declaration of amunicipal charter. Acity charter ortown charter ormunicipal charter is alegal document establishing a municipality, such as acity ortown.[citation needed]
There are 12 city corporations inBangladesh. Two of them are located in the capitalDhaka and the remaining 10 are located in the most populouscities of the eight divisions.[clarification needed] They carry out major works in the cities and perform socio-economic and civic functions. In addition, there are 330 municipalities in the eightdivisions ofBangladesh. A city corporation is a much stronger and largerLocal governing body than a municipal corporation. This is because a city corporation consists of ametropolitan city of adistrict and a municipal corporation consists of amunicipal area in asub-district.[4][5]
In Canada, charters are granted byprovincial authorities.
Municipal corporations are the local bodies responsible for governing large urban areas in India. Their establishment is mandated by the74th amendment,[6] and each municipal corporation is established through and governed by municipal acts passed bystate legislatures.[7] TheGreater Chennai Corporation is the oldest municipal corporation in India.[8]
The title "corporation" was used inboroughs from soon after theNorman conquest until theLocal Government Act 2001. Under the 2001 act,county boroughs were renamed "cities" and their corporations became "city councils"; other borough corporations were renamed "borough councils".[9]
After thePartition of Ireland, the corporations in theIrish Free State were Dublin,Cork,Limerick andWaterford (county boroughs) andDrogheda,Kilkenny,Sligo,Clonmel, and Wexford (non-county boroughs).Dún Laoghaire gained borough status in 1930 as "The Corporation of Dun Laoghaire".[10]Galway's borough status, lost in 1840, was restored in 1937; it was formally styled "the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Galway",[11] but referred to as "the Corporation".[12]
TheNew Zealand Constitution Act 1852 allowed municipal corporations to be established within the newprovinces of New Zealand. The term fell out of favour following the abolition of the provinces in 1876.[13]
Theancient boroughs ofEngland and Wales were typically incorporated by aroyal charter, though some were boroughs byprescription. TheMunicipal Corporations Act 1835 andMunicipal Corporations Act 1882 abolished the corporations ofrotten boroughs and other small rural areas. TheLocal Government Act 1888 aligned the powers of the remaining borough corporations with those of the newurban district councils. All borough corporations were replaced under theLocal Government Act 1972 with councils not designated as "corporations", with the exception of theCity of London Corporation.
The corporations of theburghs of Scotland were similar in origin and were reformed or replaced in the nineteenth century before being abolished by theLocal Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The Irish borough corporations within what is nowNorthern Ireland were reformed by theMunicipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 andLocal Government (Ireland) Act 1898 and replaced by theLocal Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.
MostU.S. states and territories have at least two tiers of local government:counties andmunicipalities.Louisiana uses the termparish,Alaska uses the termborough, andConnecticut uses the termplanning region for what theU.S. Census Bureau termscounty equivalents in those states.Civil townships or towns are used as subdivisions of a county in 20 states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
Population centers may be organized into incorporated municipalities of several types, including thecity,town,borough, andvillage. The types and nature of these municipal entities vary from state to state. In addition to these general-purpose local governments, states may also createspecial-purpose local governments. Depending on the state, local governments may operate under their own charters or under general law, or a state may have a mix of chartered and general-law local governments. Generally, in a state having both chartered and general-law local governments, the chartered local governments have more local autonomy and home rule. Municipalities are typically subordinate to a county government, with some exceptions. Certain cities, for example, have consolidated with their county government asconsolidated city-counties. InVirginia, cities are completelyindependent from the county in which they would otherwise be a part. In some states, particularly in New England,towns form the primary unit of local government below the state level, in some cases eliminating the need for county government entirely. Many rural areas and even some suburban areas of many states have no municipal government below the county level.
In addition to counties and municipalities, states often create special purpose authorities, such asschool districts and districts for fire protection,sanitary sewer service,public transportation,public libraries, public parks or forests, water resource management, andconservation districts. Such special purpose districts may encompass areas in multiple municipalities or counties. According to the US Census Bureau's data collected in 2012, there were 89,004 local government units in the United States. This data shows a decline from 89,476 units since the last census of local governments performed in 2007.[needs update]
Each of the five permanently inhabitedU.S. territories is also subdivided into smaller entities. Puerto Rico has78 municipalities, and theNorthern Mariana Islands has four municipalities.Guam hasvillages, theU.S. Virgin Islands hasdistricts, andAmerican Samoa hasdistricts and unorganized atolls.
EachIndian Reservation is subdivided in various ways. For example, theNavajo Nation is subdivided into agencies andchapter houses, while theBlackfeet Nation is subdivided intocommunities.
According to one definition of the term, municipal corporations are "organisations with independent corporate status, managed by an executive board appointed primarily by local government officials, and with majority public ownership".[1] Some such corporations rely on revenue from user fees, distinguishing them from agencies and special districts funded through taxation,[2] although this is not always the case.[1] Such municipal corporations result from a process of "externalization", and require different skills and orientations from the respective local governments, and follow common changes[clarification needed] in the institutional landscape of public services.[3] They are argued to be more efficient than government bureaucracies, but have higher failure rates because of their legal and managerial autonomy.[1]
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