Independent city

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An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).

Historical precursors

In the

, along with others that gained and/or lost the privileges of immediacy over the course of the Empire's history.

National capitals

A number of countries have made their national capitals into separate entities.

Federal capitals

In countries with a federal structure, the federal capital is often separate from other jurisdictions in the country, and frequently has a unique system of government.

Africa

Ethiopia

.

Mali

Bamako, the capital of Mali, is contained within the Bamako Capital District.

Mozambique

Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, is its own district with provincial status surrounded by the Province of Maputo.

Niger

Niger's capital, Niamey, comprises a capital district of Niger. It is surrounded by the Tillabéri Department.

Nigeria

Nigeria's capital

(the historic capital) in 1991.

Asia

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Taiwan

In

Taoyuan City

) and province-administered ones are like independent cities under this definition.

South Korea

In addition to its nine provinces, South Korea has seven province-level "metropolitan cities." By far the largest among these in terms of population is the capital, Seoul, called a teukbyeol-si (특별시; literally, special city), which is home to more than 20% of the entire population of the country. The remaining six independent cities are called gwangyeok-si (광역시; literally, large city) whose names are: Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Incheon, Gwangju, and Ulsan.

Historically, these independent cities have been carved from the province that surrounds them. Consequently, they typically share a strong regional and cultural identity with the adjoining province(s). For instance, Gwangju, located at the center of

that almost completely encompasses them.

One interesting relic of the newer independent cities is that, in some cases, the government administrative buildings (docheong) of the provinces they were once a part of are still located within city boundaries, meaning that these provinces have capitals that are not within their borders.

On 1 July 2012, Yeongi-gun, Chungcheongnam-do absorbed parts of Cheonan, Gongju and Cheongju, and became independent from Chungcheongnam-do as Sejong Special Self-governing City under the Special Act on the Installation of Sejong City. Currently, the population of Sejong Special Self-governing City is lower than that of the aforementioned metropolitan cities, but the population is increasing with the construction of a mixed-use administrative city. In 2006, the ruling party floated a proposal to eliminate all current province and independent-city borders. This plan would divide the entire republic into fifty or sixty city- or county-level administrations, similar to the system in Japan. The plan was intended to help reduce regional discrimination and animosity by eliminating provincial identity.

Philippines

Many major cities in the Philippines are independent cities, classified as either "highly urbanized" or "independent component" cities. These cities are administratively and legally not subject to a

and its surrounding islands.

Vietnam

Vietnam has five municipalities that are not part of any of the Vietnam's provinces. This includes Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam; and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the most populous city of Vietnam.

China

In China, both Beijing and

Korea

In both South Korea and North Korea, special cities are independent from their surrounding provinces and city-states under direct governance from the central government. Examples are Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon and Ulsan in South Korea and Pyongyang and Rason in North Korea. In South Korea, the main criterion for granting secession from the province is a population reaching one million.

Thailand

In Thailand, the capital Bangkok operates independently of any province and is considered a special administrative area. It is a primate city in terms of its large population, having nearly 8% of Thailand's total population.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, the national capital

. Furthermore, these sub-units do not have local parliament as opposed to other cities or regencies in Indonesia.

India

New Delhi and the old city of Delhi together form the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Iraq

The capital of Iraq, Baghdad, is contained within a special capital district.

Japan

In Japan, Tokyo, as well as being a city, forms a prefecture, falling into a special category of "metropolitan prefecture" having some of the attributes of a city and some of a prefecture. Within Tokyo, there are smaller units, "wards", "cities", "towns", etc., but some of the responsibilities normally assigned to cities and towns in other Japanese prefectures are handled by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government instead.^[2][3][4]

Pakistan

The capital of Pakistan,

Province.

UAE

In United Arab Emirates, the seven emirates are themselves city-states, or were historically, in particular Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.

Europe

Austria

The city of

.

Belgium

The

regions

after the country was turned into a federation in 1970. (In Belgium there are special circumstances due to the country's language communities.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The

Office of the High Representative

that currently oversees the district of Brčko.

Bulgaria

The capital city of Sofia has the status of oblast (region).

Croatia

The capital city of Zagreb has the status equal to županija (county), whereas all other cities and municipalities are under a county jurisdiction.

Historically, Croatian cities became independent by being named a "

County that surrounded it.

France

The city of Paris is both a

.

Germany

In Germany, most of the federal states are subdivided into administrative districts called Kreise, each of which normally includes several towns or cities. However, a number of the more important and more populous cities are not part of a Kreis, but are instead themselves each equivalent in status and functions to a Kreis. Such cities are known as Kreisfreie Städte (literally, "district-free cities") – or, in the case of Baden-Württemberg, Stadtkreise ("urban districts").

There are currently 110 kreisfreie Städte (or equivalents). Of these, the 22 largest are:

• Berlin [a]
• Hamburg [a]
• Munich (München)
• Cologne (Köln)
• Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main)
• Stuttgart
• Düsseldorf
• Dortmund
• Essen
• Leipzig
• Bremen [a]
• Dresden
• Hanover (Hannover) [b]
• Nuremberg (Nürnberg)
• Duisburg
• Bochum
• Wuppertal
• Bielefeld
• Bonn
• Münster
• Karlsruhe
• Mannheim
• Flensburg

[a]: Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen are also federal states in their own right.
[b]: Effectively a Kreisfreie Stadt, although the city is de jure a part of the special-status Hanover Region.

Stadtstaaten of Germany

Two cities in Germany, namely

Cities".

Generally, the city-states have no other rights or duties than the other states. Through the financial redistribution system of Equalization Payments in Germany (German: Länderfinanzausgleich), they do receive more money because of their demographic characteristics. The city-states are most distinctive due to the names of their state organs: their governments are called Senate, the prime ministers 'mayor' (Governing Mayor in Berlin and First Mayor in Hamburg) or President of the Senate (in Bremen) and also the expressions for their state parliaments differ from the other states.

In the 18th century, many German cities were

was located. Frankfurt was incorporated by Prussia in 1866, and Lübeck became a part of Prussia during the national socialist regime in 1937 (Greater Hamburg Law). After 1945, Berlin was a divided city, and the Western part became a German quasi-state under (Western) Allied supervision. Since 1990/1991, the reunited Berlin is an ordinary German state among others.

Hungary

See also:

List of towns in Hungary

In Hungary, 23 of the cities are "cities with county rights". These cities have equal rights with the 19 counties of Hungary. Budapest, the capital city is also a special district, outside of the country's system of counties. Although Budapest does not belong to Pest County which surrounds it, it is still the county headquarters.

Ireland

Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford are governed by independent city councils.^[5]

Norway

In Norway, Oslo is both a municipality (kommune) and a county (fylke) within itself.

Poland

Urban gmina

Among Polish municipalities containing a town or a city, 638 are organized as a mixed urban-rural gmina (Polish: gmina miejsko-wiejska) consisting of a town and surrounding villages and countryside, governed by a common municipal government. The remaining 302 of them, however, are a standalone urban gmina (Polish: gmina miejska) which contains solely either an independent town or one of the 107 cities (the latter governed by a city mayor or prezydent miasta).

City with powiat rights

Among the 107 cities, 66 of them constitute counties in their own right, formally called

.

Romania

Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is outside the country's system of counties.

Russian Federation

In the Russian Federation,

as unlawful.

Spain

In Spain, there exist two so-called autonomous cities,

. These two cities hold their special status because they are not large enough to be considered regions on their own. Nonetheless, they function as autonomous communities with a high degree of self-administration and law-making powers.

Sweden

Historically, until 1967,

(which is elected by the people and is responsible for example for health care); instead, the City of Stockholm handled such tasks.

Switzerland

One of the cantons of Switzerland, Basel-Stadt, is considered to be a city-state.^[6]

Ukraine

In Ukraine, the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol are part of the country constituent regions along with the autonomous republic of Crimea (ARK), and 24 other oblasts (see Oblasts of Ukraine).

United Kingdom

In the UK, having city status gives the city's

control in England and Wales from 1889 to 1974 with the term continuing in use in Northern Ireland. Wales re-introduced the term in 1994 for use with certain unitary authorities.

London, the capital of the United Kingdom and its constituent country England, is administratively Greater London, which consists of the City of London and 32 London boroughs. Greater London is not one of the metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, which the remainder of England is subdivided into. London has its own assembly and directly elected mayor, which exercise local government/devolved powers greater than any other city or place in the UK, apart from the nations/provinces of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

North America

Canada

In the Canadian province of

.

In

.

In

.

In

; unincorporated communities, including local urban districts, remain part of the rural municipality they lie within.

In New Brunswick, all county government was abolished in 1967.^[7] Therefore, in theory, all cities, townships, and settlements in New Brunswick could be considered independent cities.

Dominican Republic

In Dominican Republic the

de Guzman was created as a special district in 1922.

Mexico

Previously, the

.

United States

There are 41 independent cities in the United States. Of these, 38 are in Virginia.^[8] They are called 'independent' because they are not in the territory of any county or counties. Independent cities in Virginia may, however, serve as county seats for neighboring counties.

The three independent cities outside Virginia are Baltimore, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; and Carson City, Nevada.

New York City displays many features associated with independent cities but is, in fact, a

, the county and borough share the same name.

Another similar entity is a consolidated city-county. An independent city is not even nominally part of any county, whereas for a consolidated city and county, the county at least nominally exists.^[9] In some cases, such as Indianapolis, Indiana, the largest city in a county is consolidated with the county government while smaller communities continue to operate within the same county but separately from Indianapolis. In other cases, such as The City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, and The City and County of San Francisco, California, there is a complete consolidation of municipality and county. San Francisco, for example, has a chief executive called "Mayor", a term normally associated with city government, but the legislative body is called "Board of Supervisors", which is otherwise associated with county government in California.

Washington, D.C., meanwhile, effectively functions in varying ways as an independent city, consolidated city-county, and state all in one, although it has special Constitutional status as the "district constituting the seat of government of the United States," and is not part of a county or a state. In 1871, the cities of Washington and Georgetown and the County of Washington were consolidated into a single local government.

South America

Argentina

The

1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, the city gained autonomous city status, and changed its formal name to Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, and held its first mayoral elections. Buenos Aires is represented in the Argentine Senate by three senators and in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

by 25 national deputies.

Brazil

Federal Senate

(upper house of congress).

Colombia

In Colombia the

Capital District, containing the city of Bogotá was created as Special District in 1955 by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla

.

Venezuela

The Capital District has the capital of Venezuela, Caracas.

Oceania

Papua New Guinea

National Capital District of Papua New Guinea

since the country achieved independence in 1975.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Mogens, Hansen. 2000. "Introduction: The Concepts of City-States and City-State Culture." In A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures, Copenhagen: Copenhagen Polis Centre. Pg. 19
2. ^ "Japan's Local Government System – Tokyo Metropolitan Government". Retrieved 18 April 2017.
3. ^ "TMG and the 23 Special Wards – Tokyo Metropolitan Government". Retrieved 18 April 2017.
4. ^ "Geography of Tokyo – Tokyo Metropolitan Government". Retrieved 18 April 2017.
5. ^ "The interface between subnational and national levels of government" (PDF). Better Regulation in Europe: Ireland. OECD. 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
6. ^ Canton of Basel-Stadt Welcome
7. ^ "Environment and Local Government / Environnement et Gouvernements locaux". Gnb.ca. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
8. ^ The Hornbook of Virginia History. "Cities of Virginia." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 19 December 2016. Web. 20 July 2019.
9. ^ Cities 101 – Consolidations, from National League of Cities