Mayor
In modern England and Wales, the position of mayor descends from the feudal lord's bailiff or reeve (see borough).
By the beginning of the 12th century, the title of portreeve gave way to that of mayor as the designation of the chief officer of London, followed around 1190 by that of Winchester.
In medieval Wales, the Laws of Hywel Dda codified the mayor (Latin: maior; Welsh: maer) as a position at the royal courts charged with administering the serfs of the king's lands.
The mayor was expected to devote much of their time to civic, ceremonial, and representational functions, and to preside over meetings for the advancement of the public welfare.
Many major cities in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth have a lord mayor, a special recognition bestowed by the sovereign.
The original Frankish mayors or majordomos were – like the Welsh meiri – lords commanding the king's lands around the Merovingian courts in Austrasia, Burgundy, and Neustria.
The model was copied throughout Europe in Britain's mayors, Italy's sindacos, most of the German states' burgomasters, and Portugal's presidents of the municipal chambers.
In Medieval Italy, the city-states who did not consider themselves independent principalities or dukedoms – particularly those of the Imperial Ghibelline faction – were led by podestàs.
The top elected official of the municipalities of Norway, on the other hand, has the title ordfører, which actually means 'word-bearer', i.e. 'chairperson' or 'president', an equivalent to the Swedish word ordförande.
Until 1965, these mayor judges on historical grounds also performed some administrative functions in the board of magistrates, in Swedish known collectively as magistrat.
In 1693 king Charles XI accepted a compromise after repeated petitions from the Estate of the Burgesses over decades against the royal mayor appointments.
This was codified in the Instrument of Government of 1720 and on 8 July the same year Riksrådet ("the Council of the Realm") decided, after a petition from the said Estate, that only the city could present nominees, not the king or anyone else.
As fortified settlements in the area between the Douro and Tagus rivers became true urban centers, they gained, from their feudal lords or the kings of Leon and Castile, the right to have councils.
In practice, most of its duties are centered on minor street repairs (new or large road projects, like overpasses, bridges, pedestrian crossings, etc.
are handled by the Ministry of Public Works (Spanish: Ministerio de Obras Públicas), under the direct control of the central government.
Water, electrical supply and public transportation coordination are handled by several central government offices, and as such, are not under the control of the mayor.
In Indonesia, mayor (Indonesian: wali kota, formerly called walikotamadya and walikota) is a regional head of a city or town.
An exception is Special Capital Region of Jakarta, where mayoralty is a civil-service career position with limited authority and is designated by the governor.
Japan's Local-Autonomy Law of 1947 defines the structure of Japanese local governments, which were strengthened after World War II.
In Kazakhstan, the mayor is called akim, who is the head of an akimat, a municipal, district, or provincial government (mayorat), and serves as the presidential representative.
Executive power is vested in an official called one of the following: They are elected by a two-round direct election for a five-year term concurrently with the five-year term of the municipal council and cannot serve in the latter or in any higher-level deliberative bodies: a county council, a voivodeship sejmik, the Parliament of Poland or the European Parliament.
A town or city mayor may be scrutinized or denied funding for his/her projects by the council, but is not politically responsible to it and does not require its confidence to remain in office; therefore, cohabitation is not uncommon.
[21] In Russia, the Мэр, from French maire (transliteration: mer – not to be confused with the NATO OF-3 rank Майор – English: major), is one of the possible titles of the head of the administration of a city or municipality.
Election by council members is now more widespread because it better integrates with the Russian federal three-level vertical governance structure: The typical term of office of a mer in Russia is four years.
Although the Castilian alcalde and the Andalusian qaḍi had slightly different attributes (the qaḍi oversaw an entire province, the alcalde only a municipality; the former was appointed by the ruler of the state but the latter was elected by the municipal council), the adoption of this term reflects how much Muslim society in the Iberian Peninsula influenced the Christian one in the early phases of the Reconquista.
Mayors (Turkish: belediye başkanı) in Turkey are elected by popular vote for five years alongside the municipal council.
In Ukraine the title "head of the city" (misky holova; unofficially the foreign adaptation mer also is present) was introduced in 1999.
Under the council-manager government system, the mayor is a first among equals on the city council, which acts as a legislative body while executive functions are performed by the appointed manager.
This is the system used in most of the United States' large cities, primarily because mayors serve full-time and have a wide range of services that they oversee.
In many cities and towns, the charter or some similar fundamental document provides that in the event of the death, illness, resignation, or removal from office of the incumbent mayor, another official will lead the municipality for a temporary period, which, depending on the jurisdiction, may be for a stated period of days or months until a special election can be held, or until the original end of the term to which the vacating mayor was elected.
