The Concept of Local Governments

Dr. Keshab Chandra Mandal

E-Mail: mandalkeshab2013@gmail.com

Local bodies are institutions of the local self governance, which look after the administration and development activities of an area or small community such as villages, towns, or cities. The local bodies in India are broadly classified into two categories i.e. rural local bodies and urban local bodies. The local bodies constituted for local planning, development and administration in the village areas are referred as rural local bodies (panchayats) and the local bodies, which are constituted for local planning, development and administration in the urban areas, are referred as urban local bodies (municipalities). Local Government is a state subject figuring as item 5 in List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. Article 243G of the Indian Constitution enshrines the basic principle for devolution of power to the Local Bodies. In the nation's journey towards becoming an economic power, local bodies play an important role in enabling infrastructure availability to the citizens.

    Local government is basically an organized social entity with a feeling of oneness among the local people. Local government means an intra-sovereign governmental unit within the sovereign state dealing mainly with local affairs, administered by local authorities and subordinate to the state government. In political terms, it is concerned with the governance of a specific local area, constituting a political sub-division of a nation, state or other major political unit. In the performance of its functions, it acts as the agent of the state. In other words, the local government is an integral part of the political mechanism for governance in a country. Then, as body corporate with juristic person, it represents a legal concept. According to the article 59(1) of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, “Local Government in every administrative unit of the Republic shall be entrusted to bodies, composed of persons elected in accordance with law.”³⁰

 

    On the other hand, “Local government in the United States refers to governmental jurisdictions below the level of the state.”³¹ Most states in the United States have at least two tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. In some states, counties are divided into townships. There are several different types of jurisdictions at the municipal level, including the city, town, borough, and village. The types and nature of these municipal entities varies from state to state. Many rural areas and even some suburban areas of many states have no municipal government below the county level. In other places consolidated city-county jurisdictions exist, in which city and county functions are managed by a single municipal government. In some New England states, towns are the primary unit of local government and counties have no governmental function but exist in a purely perfunctory capacity. As of 2012, using the Census Bureau's definition, there were 89,055 local government units in the United States. ³²

    In a report on ‘Decentralization and Local Governance in South Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus’³³Local self-government is about managing local government rather than structuring it, in opposition to what is usually said local self-government is a principle that entails freedom in managing and making decisions for those public authorities that are said local because they are separated from central government. This freedom is only delineated by acts of Parliament which must define the conditions and securities under which such the basic principle of local democracy is implemented (Art.9.para.4).

   The concept of local government in Europe can best be understood from the recently published report of Local and Regional Government in Europe: Structures and Competences.³⁴ The report, published by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) representing 54 national associations of local and regional government in 40 European countries, highlights the 39 local government systems in Europe. The local governments in Europe are also the lower level governments in these countries.  The local governments, known as different names in different countries, have almost identical functions and roles in local developments. There are two tiers of local governments in some parts of England (counties and districts), while in other parts of England it has single tier system. On the other hand, in Germany there are two types of local structures depending on the region’s legal status: the magistrate system (Magistratsverfassung) and the council system (Suddeutsche Ratsverfassung). The council system exists in all German regions except for Hessen. France is a unitary state composed of municipalities, departments and regions. In total there are 36,682 municipalities in France.

   

    Marius Guderjan of Manchester Metropolitan University in an article³⁵ points out that the integration of Europe in 1990s, “….have led to Europeanization processes at the local level, whereby local authorities became increasingly aware of the EU’s influence on their practice, and as a consequence they adapted their politico-administrative structures.” As a result of union of European nations, the national governments remain in charge of the major decisions about the EU’s policies and polity, and municipalities engage in a fairly limited range of policy areas, local actors feed into the multilevel realities of the EU.