Profe Paul

The function of municipalities. The lowest level of state power is the municipality. Municipalities come in different sizes, but their ultimate responsibility is to supply the basic services on a local level. Larger metropolitan municipalities are huge organisations employing thousands of people and they can undertake big capital projects. There is not that much interaction between the municipality - also called the City Council - and the citizens. In smallest municipalities, also called Town Councils,  that link is much more direct and people often know some, or all the members of the council. They can react quickly to needs of the community, and the community can organise to remove them from the Council. However, the biggest problem for these smaller Councils is finances. They have a limited ability to collect taxes, called property tax. Property tax is calculated on the value of the building and paid by the owner of the building. Basically their main function is to provi...

Power is vested in the parliament. It can appoint and remove the president. It can make, change or repeal laws. However, it cannot make laws that are outside the constitution. If it did that, the Constitutional Court can declare the law unconstitutional and thus void.  With a 66% vote parliament can change the constitution. Some power is devolved to the Provinces. These powers are generally not described in detail in the constitution, only the provisions under which parliament grants them powers. The constitution does give the provinces power in the National Council of Provinces. This is the equivalent to the Senate in Chile. Each province has 10 representatives, including the premier minister of the province. Provinces do have some taxation roles which is more in line with a federal system than a unitary system. They also have the power to oversee the municipalities in their provinces and even to suspend a municipality when they are not acting in the best interests of th...