The Municipality of Monaco (french: Commune de Monaco; lij, Cumüna de Munegu) is the only

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of the

Principality of Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Liguria ...

, and is coterminous with the state as a whole.

Political order

The municipal system is determined by the IX part of the

Constitution of Monaco The Constitution of Monaco, first adopted in 1911 after the Monégasque Revolution and heavily revised by Prince Rainier III on 17 December 1962, outlines three branches of government, including several administrative offices and a number of coun ...

. The Municipality of Monaco has as its organ the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

made up of 15 members, who can also be present at the National Council. A little more than 7,000 Monegasque citizens are voters, while to be elected it is necessary to be 21 years old. The

electoral system An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

is a simple two-year plurinominal scrutiny: each elector has fifteen votes of preference that he can distribute to his pleasure among the possibly competing lists. The candidates who have been chosen by more than half of the voters are elected in the first round, while for the others the road of a second round is opened in which the most voted candidates are elected. The effect of this mechanism is hyper-major, configuring an assembly dominated by the first party of the principality, the

Union Monégasque Union Monégasque () is a centrist political party in the Principality of Monaco. Union Monégasque was formed in 2013 and is led by Jean-François Robillon. In the most recent elections on February 11, 2018 it won 16.2 percent of the vote and 1 ...

. The term of office is 4 years. The council elects in its interior the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a 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 responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

and his deputies, or the councilors. The political custom, however, makes sure that the candidate for the first city armchair is indirectly indicated by the voters in the figure of the list leader of the most voted list. The current mayor is Georges Marsan, who has been in office since 2003 and has come to the third re-election. The functions of the municipality, active in social, cultural and civil life, do not differ substantially from those of the homologous bodies of neighboring nations, the French and Italian municipalities.

History

The ancient territory of the Principality was much larger than the present one, including also the towns of Roccabruna and

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

which, however, arose in the framework of the

Italian Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

, passed to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in 1860 leaving the capital, i.e. the Monegasque municipality, as the only common of the State. The 1911 constitution divided the old Commune of Monaco into the three municipalities of

Monaco City Monaco City (french: Monaco-Ville) is the southcentral ward in the Principality of Monaco. Located on a headland that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, it is nicknamed The Rock (french: Le Rocher). The name "Monaco City" is misleading: it is no ...

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

and

La Condamine La Condamine ( lij, A Cundamina ) is the central ward in the Principality of Monaco. Its landmarks include Port Hercules, the Rainier III Nautical Stadium, and the Princess Antoinette Park. Its farmer's market at the ''Place d'Armes'' dates fro ...

, but the prince's government was accused of having operated a form of dividend and imperat against the only democratic institution in the country, having on the other hand, the National Council has extremely limited powers. The controversy brought relatively quickly to the revision of the decision, restoring the single municipality with a law of 1917, operational from the following year. Since then the Monegasque territory is administratively undivided, and the city districts have only statistical purposes. Today, the city hall of Monaco is based in place de la Mairie.

Quarters

References

{{reflist Subdivisions of Monaco France–Monaco border crossings