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Mayor
*** Shopping-Tip: Mayor
Image:Lord Mayor of London's coronation robes.JPG thumb|Lord Mayor of London in his coronation robes. (1821)
Image:Hurricane Katrina President Bush with New Orleans Mayor.jpg thumb|The Mayor of [[New Orleans in 2005 (right)]]
A '''mayor''' (from the
Latin (language) Latin ''mÄ?ior'', meaning "larger","greater") is the
politician who serves as chief executive official of some types of
municipality municipalities. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs as to the powers and responsibilities of a mayor, as well as the means of becoming mayor.
In
Germany and the
Low Countries the chief town magistrate is called "burgomaster" (see that article
German language G. ''Bürgermeister'',
Dutch language Du. ''burgemeester''; French-speaking parts of
Belgium use ''bourgmestre'')
The equivalent in
Italy is ''sindaco'' (historical titles include
podestà ), in
France ''Maire'', in
Bohemia ''starosta'', in
Portugal ''Presidente da Câmara Municipal'' (President of the Municipal Chamber), and in
Spain ''alcalde'', a term derived from a
Moors Moorish post.
In the
United States, mayors are usually elected by the citizens of a locality for a fixed term. They generally share power with a local legislative body, such as a
city council. Mayors may also function as the head of the city council, sometimes elected as mayor by the council rather than by the citizens, while day-to-day operations of the city can be delegated to a non-elective professional town - or
city manager.
In
Salt Lake County in the
U.S. state of
Utah there is a '''county mayor'''. In
Orleans Parish, LA the mayor of New Orleans also serves as
Parish President. Additionally, the chief executives of all counties in
Tennessee and
Hawaii are referred to as "mayors". However, these persons are elected, not appointed, to that office.
In
Canada mayors are usually elected at large by the citizens of a municipality for a fixed term. In most provinces, the Mayor operates under a weak-mayor system in which the Mayor sits as a member of the municipal council. In such systems, the Mayor has one vote, in common with all other members of Council and no executive powers. In rural municipalities, the head of Council may have the title ''reeve'' as opposed to ''mayor''.
In several other countries, mayors are often appointed by some branch of the federal or regional government. In some cities, subdivisions such as
boroughs, may have their own mayors; this is the case, for example, with the
arrondissements of
Paris and in
Mexico City. In Belgium, only
Brussels, the capital, administratively is one of the federation's three regions, subdivided -without the other regions' provincial level- into 19 rather small municipalities, which each have an elected -formally appointed- Burgomaster (i.e. Mayor, responsible to their elected councils); while
Antwerp, the other major metropolitan area, has one large city (where the burpughs, former municipalities merged into it, elect a lower level, albeit with very limited comptence) and several smaller surrounding municipalities, each under a normal Burgomaster as in Brussels.
In the
United Kingdom, the office of
Mayors in the United Kingdom Mayor has long been ceremonial.
Elected-mayors-in-the-united-kingdom Directly-elected mayors were introduced in some areas from 2000. In London, the ceremonial
Lord Mayor of London, representing the
City of London, should be distinguished from the elected
Mayor of London who is responsible for the whole of
Greater London. Thirty cities in the United Kingdom have
Lord Mayors (or
Lord Provosts in Scotland).
In the
People's Republic of China, the Mayor (市长) may be the administrative head of any municipality, be it provincial-, prefectural, or county-level. The Mayor is usually the most recognized official in cities, although the Mayor shares a great deal of power with the local Communist Party Secretary. In principle, the Mayor (who is usually a high ranking member of the local party) is responsible for managing the city administration while the Party Secretary is responsible for general policy and managing the party bureaucacy, but in practice the roles blur frequently causing conflict.
In Finland, there are no mayors, although plans have been floated to institute the office in
Tampere. The highest executive official is not democratically elected, but appointed to a public office by the city council, and is called simply ''kaupunginjohtaja'' "city manager" or ''kunnanjohtaja'' "municipal manager", depending on whether the municipality feels like calling itself a city. The term ''pormestari'' "mayor", from Swedish ''borgmästare'' "master of the castle" confusingly refers to the highest official in the registry office, not the city manager. In addition, ''pormestari'' is also a title, which may be given for distinguished service in the post of the city manager. The city manager of Helsinki is called ''ylipormestari'', which translates to "Chief Mayor", for historical reasons. Furthermore, the term "city manager" may be seen translated as "mayor".
History
In spite of its etymology, "mayor" was not a
Ancient Rome Roman office. It came into use in the large entourages that followed the
barbarian leaders who succeeded to the power of the
Roman Emperor Emperor of the West. The male officer who governed a
monarch king or
duke's peripatetic household was the ''major domus'', the "
major domo". In the households of the
Merovingian Franks Frankish kings, the major domus, or ''praefectus palatii'' ("prefect of the palace"), gained such power that, in the person of
Pippin of Herstal, he ended by evicting his master. He was the "mayor of the palace".
See also
*
Lists of mayors by country
*
Council-manager government
*
Mayor-council government
*
World Mayor
Category:Chief executives *Mayor
Category:Management occupations
Category:Government occupations
Category:Local government in the United States
Category:Titles
Category:Mayors *
ast:Alcalde
bg:Кмет
cs:Starosta
da:Borgmester
de:Bürgermeister
es:Alcalde
eo:Urbestro
fr:Maire
fy:Boargemaster
id:Walikota
it:Sindaco
he:ר×?ש עירייה
lt:Meras
hu:Polgármester
nl:Burgemeester
ja:首長
no:Ordfører
nn:Ordførar
pl:Burmistrz
pt:Prefeito
ru:БургомиÑ?Ñ‚Ñ€
sk:Starosta
sl:Župan
fi:Pormestari
sv:Borgmästare
tr:Belediye başkanı
uk:МіÑ?ький голова
yi:בירגערמייסטער
zh:市长
*** Shopping-Tip: Mayor
