Are Municipalities Creatures of the Provinces?

by

This is a provocative question, who has the authority to create local government, where do the powers to institute local government come from, what authorizes their creation and dissolution?

“This article challenges the standard idea that municipalities are creatures of the provinces, and suggests instead that they embody one of the major principles of a free and democratic society, the right of local self-government. Municipalities are political authorities of a different sort, which may coexist with the state but are not strictly part of it.

Local self-government is a practice rooted in everyday life, and there is more to it than just having municipal authorities. Canadians have yet to have a proper debate about the constitutional implications of giving appropriate recognition to this practice.”

W. Magnusson | Feb 1 2005 | Political Science | Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Are-Municipalities-Creatures-of-the-Provinces-Magnusson/1f82644424445e3484f16a00d3b6ed9ffe484fa6

Related posts:

  1. Bourgeois Theories of Local Government “This paper offers an historical analysis of the principles of local government organization that have been accepted in Britain and the United States. The central thesis is that these principles express an ‘economist’ conception of politics and the state. Local...
  2. ‘Devolution’ of transport powers to Local Government: Impacts of the 2004 Traffic Management Act in England “Overall, the results show that only some of these new powers are likely to be used by English Local Authorities, with limited variation in how different types of LTA are choosing to implement these new powers. The structured telephone interviews...
  3. The Doctrine of an Inherent Right of Local Self-Government. The Extent of Its Application by American Courts “…from the historical examination of this subject, it becomes manifest that local self-government of the municipality does not spring from nor exist by virtue of written constitutions; that it is not a mere privilege, conferred by the central authority, but...
  4. The Concept of an ‘Enabling’ Local Authority “Concepts of enabling show how conventional local government can create innovative local governance.” Six distinct though related strands of ‘enabling’ as applied to the ability of local governments to engage in innovative methods of service delivery are distinguished. The practice...
  5. Reducing costs by consolidating municipalities: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario “Notwithstanding a lack of interest by cost-cutting governments in Britain and the United States, municipal consolidation has emerged in at least three Canadian provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario – as a significant government priority. There is no...
  6. Municipal Amalgamation in Japan: Who Is Happy? “In order to improve efficiency in local government public services, Japan’s central government has implemented a strategy of amalgamation of municipalities and created larger local government units. Since the Meiji Restoration (1868) there have been three big waves of amalgamations...
  7. The politics of local government performance: Elite cohesion and cross-village constraints in decentralized Senegal “Though local elites dominate positions of authority everywhere, the article argues that local government performance varies subnationally as a function of elites’ relations among each other across villages.” The adoption of democratic decentralization across the developing world has been critiqued...
  8. Citizens’ Attitudes toward Municipal Amalgamation in Three Ontario Municipalities “One of the most contentious policies introduced by the Harris Conservative government as part of its Common Sense Revolution was municipal amalgamation. The purpose of the amalgamations was to improve efficiency and reduce municipal spending and to decrease the number...
  9. Local government in the new South Africa “…the creation of a constitutional framework for local government must be seen as the first step in the development of autonomous local government, and that the main task now facing all three tiers of South Africa’s government is the development...
  10. Unity in diversity? The creation of new local governments in a decentralising Indonesia “Since jurisdictional changes will affect local governance and service delivery, we stress the importance of providing an effective institutional framework for the creation – or future amalgamation – of local governments as part of a strategic approach to consolidating Indonesia’s...