avrillavignewallpapers2

A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. It is to be distinguished (usually) from the county, which may encompass rural territory or numerous small communities such as towns, villages and hamlets. The term municipality may also mean the governing or ruling body of a given municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district. The term is derived from French municipalité and Latin municipalis . The English word municipality derives from the Latin social contract municipium (derived from a word meaning "duty holders"), referring to the Latin communities that supplied Rome with troops in exchange for their own incorporation into the Roman state (granting Roman citizenship to the inhabitants) while permitting the communities to retain their own local gover...

Powers of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state. Municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, and corporate income tax, but may also receive substantial funding from the state. In some European countries, such as Germany, municipalities have the constitutional right to supply public services through municipally-owned public utility companies.

Municipality edit Terms cognate with "municipality", mostly referring to territory or political structure, clarification needed are Spanish municipio (Spain) and municipalidad (Chile), and Catalan municipi . Communes edit In a number of countries terms cognate with "commune" are used, referring to the community living in the area and the common interest. These include terms: in Romance languages, such as French commune (France, French-speaking areas of Belgium and Switzerland, French-speaking countries of Africa, e.g. Benin), Italian comune , Romanian comună , and Spanish comuna (Chile); in Germanic languages such as German Kommune (in political parlance), Swedish kommun , Faroese kommuna , Norwegian, Danish kommune ; the more remote cognates Gemeente in Dutch, Gemeng in Luxembourgish and Gemeinde in German (the official term); and Polish gmina . The same terms may be used for church congregations or parishes, for example in the German and Dutch Protesta...

This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines . Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure. ( January 2014 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( June 2014 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Country Term Example Subdivision of Quantity Notes Further reading Afghanistan شاروالی یا شهرداری shārwāli (or shahr-dari) Provinces of Afghanistan 204 34 'provincial' municipalities of provincial capitals ( shārwāli ) and 170 rural or 'district' municipalities ( shārwāli uluswāli ) www.km.gov.af, dmm.gov.af, idlg.gov.af Albania bashki (urban) or komunë (rural) 61 Municipalities of Albania Algeria baladiyah daïra (district), which is part of a wilaya (pr...