Government of Urcea: Difference between revisions

== Local Government ==

Every province, crownland, and state is divided into dioceses which are coterminous with the episcopal diocese of the [[Catholic Church]], though the so-called "civil diocese" have very little administrative or political function and have two main responsibilities. Primarily, diocesan division is a method by which [[Criminal_justice_system_of_Urcea#Hierarchy_of_courts|judicial districts]] are determined; judicial responsibilities are not held at the municipal level and there are almost no municipal courts save for in [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]]. The second responsibility handled at the diocesan level is that of national elections, with Diocesan Boards of Election being responsible for the planning and execution of elections for [[Procurator]], [[Censor (Urcea)|Censor]], and members of the [[Concilium Daoni]]; if municipalities use the "executive" model described below, the Diocesan Board of Election also oversees elections for those local offices. Below the diocesan level exists the three basic types of local government; the civil commune, the guild commune, and the executive polis. In each of these three systems, the school district is entirely coterminous with the municipality, though each of the three systems have a different method by which the local school district is administered. The entirety of the Apostolic Kingdom is thus divided into municipal boundaries with no unincorporated areas. This system was brought about largely during the regency of [[Gréagóir FitzRex]], as dioceses replaced counties in the mid 1890s; under the previous system, most counties had no sitting count with authority devolving back to the [[Apostolic King of Urcea|Crown]], though some counties had counts who retained hereditary political power. FitzRex also introduced the executive polis system and planned for it to be used for every locality in the country by 1905, but the [[Red Interregnum]] canceled implementation of that reform.

The most common type of local governance in [[Urcea]] is that of the civil commune, the oldest form of local government currently in place originating in the practices of cities in the Medieval period. The commune functions through town meeting, a form of direct democracy whereby the members of the locality vote on legislation and issues of local importance in addition to having authority to set budgets and adopt zoning plans. The commune's assembly also exercises total control over the local school district. In the civil commune, any citizen owning property or having a substantial financial stake, such as a job, within the commune ages 21 or older can vote at the town meeting. A moderator is typically elected at the first meeting of a calendar year and serves for the remainder of the year, and the moderator has no delineated powers other than maintaining the rules of order. Within the assembly, there are committees formed typically either by volunteers or by drawing names from a hat or bin, and members of committees serve for a calendar year Communes maintain small governments apart from the assembly, appointing permanent paid individuals to oversee areas such as highway and sewer maintenance. These hired individuals are usually subject to the authority of a committee within the commune's assembly relating to that area of governance, with the exception of police chiefs, who are subject to oversight only by the assembly as a whole. Civil communes are usually employed for rural municipalities, but are also the most common type of government employed in suburban areas of the country as well. By national law, communes can not be used for large municipalities and cities of over 220,000 people.

The second most common type of local government is that of the executive polis, which entails the fairly typical system used abroad employing a mayor and city council. This system was introduced with the [[Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892]] by [[Gréagóir FitzRex]], and previously had only been reserved for [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]], which uses a similar system except the executive is entitled "Lord Prefect". These are now used only for the largest cities throughout the nation, including the cathedral city of each of Urcea's holds, provinces, and states. The executive mayor is responsible for the administration of the city and works with a municipal legislative branch, the city council, to handle the affairs of the city. The city council is elected by the all citizens of the city of voting age, and each city using this system is separated into election districts called wards. Under this system, separate zoning boards and boards of education are also elected to handle those respective areas. Elected officials under the executive polis serve five year terms that are coterminous with members of the [[Concilium Daoni]], and consequently these localities follow the electoral calendar of national elections. These cities have relatively large executive branches, with department heads nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the city council.

The third and most rare common type of local government is the [[Guilds (Urcea)|guild]] commune. This system, like the civil commune, finds its origins in the medieval period, though they were very rare compared to civil communes and were more widely implemented during the industrial revolution by [[King Aedanicus VIII]] in the face of the inability of both communal and prefecture governments to properly govern growing cities. This system is very similar to the civil commune except it has a more restrictive, hierarchical approach to membership in the assembly. It employs an assembly of [[Guilds (Urcea)|Guild members]] serving in a similar governing capacity as the civil commune, with every vested member of a guild entitled to a vote before the assembly in the commune. This system is considered to be pseudo-democratic and representative, as non-vested members of the guilds - the vast majority of individuals typically living in a guild commune city - have a responsibility to select who is vested within their respective guild. Like the civil commune, the guild assembly has the ability to hire permanent employees of the commune to oversee municipal affairs. Unlike the civil commune, the hired apparatus in a guild commune is often much larger than that in a civil commune, given the large size and scope of administering a city. Consequently, the guild commune is often viewed as something of a compromise between the executive polis, with a representation structure overseeing a large municipal bureaucracy, and the civil commune, with an assembly-oriented methodology of governance rather than a strictly composed legislature. Guild communes are typically concentrated in historic industrial centers where the influence of the guilds were in higher demand, and most guild communes were established during the {{wp|industrial revolution}}. Many transitioned to the executive polis model during the mid-20th century.

Prior to the reform of 1892, there was another kind of local government in place, prefectures. Prefectures were extremely common and were employed for cities and areas that did not traditionally enjoy communal rights and privileges. Under these prefectures, the highest local hereditary authority would directly appoint a prefect to govern a region and create an administration under them. Prefects would serve as long as they had the confidence of whoever appointed them. Prior to the [[Great Confessional War]], the local nobility typically appointed the prefects, but following the conflict the [[Apostolic King of Urcea]] assumed direct control over vast swaths of the country. Appointment of prefects became a time consuming affair for the Crown and the inability to oversee so many local prefects was the source of corruption and poor governance in many parts of the country. Many major industrial cities were transitioned from prefectures to guild communes during the 18th and 19th centuries. [[King Aedanicus VIII]] swept away most of the prefectures during his reign, granting communal rights to most areas and elevating some guild communes elsewhere, but a handful remained in place until the entire country was reorganized in by [[Gréagóir FitzRex]] in 1892. Prefectures were not always permanent institutions; oftentimes they would be used to organize new [[Ómestaderoi]] regions or reclaimed land until such time that a civil commune could be established. Prefectures in this manner were also used under the Rectory system for newly acquired territories in [[Levantia]], most especially in the [[Kingdom of Crotona]] as pre-existing feudal units did not exist in the primarily city-state dotted islands.