The concejo abierto (literally: "open council") is a system of government and administration of some very small
Spanish municipalities and
sub-municipal territorial units. An example of
direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...
, the system allows for the existence of a
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
and a ''consejo'' () or ''asamblea vecinal'' () formed by all the electors of the municipality. In contrast, the conventional system used by most municipalities is the
ayuntamiento
''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain:
* ().
* ().
* (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. is mai ...
, often translated as city, town or municipal council in English, comprised (in its most basic form) of the local councillors who form the plenary (elected in a
party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...
voting), and the Mayor, elected in turn by the councillors among themselves.
History
The origins of the system trace back to the Middle Ages, as a custom primarily originated in the Kingdoms of
León and
Castile, although it also extended to other territories as well, chiefly in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. In many settlements, the concejo abierto was replaced by the "''
regimiento''" system (also called ''consejo cerrado'', "close council"), in which a decision-making body of limited size formed by ''judges'' or ''alcaldes'' as well as a number of ''regidores'' appointed by the King was contemplated; in the case of Castile, this process chiefly took place between 1345 and the later years of the rule of
Alfonso XI.
The contemporary form of the concejo abierto is recognised in the
1978 Spanish Constitution.
See also
*
Local government in Spain
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...
*
Town meeting
Town meeting, also known as an "open town meeting", is a form of local government in which eligible town residents can directly participate in an assembly which determines the governance of their town. Unlike representative town meeting where ...
References
Bibliography
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*
Local government in Spain
Direct democracy
Forms of local government
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