The word “Municipality” derives from the Latin social contract municipium (derived from a word that means holders of rights), referring to the Latin communities that supplied Rome with troops in exchange for their own incorporation into the Roman state (granting Roman citizenship to the inhabitants) allowing communities to retain their own local governments (limited autonomy).
A municipality is generally a single urban administrative division that has corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction granted by national and state laws to which it is subordinate. It must be distinguished from the county, which may encompass rural territory and / or numerous small communities such as towns and villages. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district. The term is derived from the French “municipality” and from the Latin “municipalities”.
The municipality can be any political jurisdiction of a sovereign state, such as the Principality of Monaco, or a small town, such as West Hampton Dunes, New York.
The power of the municipalities ranges from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state. Municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax and property tax, but they can also receive substantial funding from the state.
In several countries, municipalities are often referred to as 'communes', especially in Romance languages (derived from Latin), such as the French commune (France, Francophone areas of Belgium and Switzerland, Francophone countries in Africa, for example Benin) Italian Commune, Romanian commune and Spanish commune (Chile) and in Germanic languages such as German Kommune (in political parlance, the official term is Gemeinde), Swedish Kommun, Faroe Islands Kommuna, and Norwegian, Danish Kommune. There are also similar terms such as the Spanish town hall, also called municipality (akin to "municipality").
One important piece of information you should know is about Municipal Law, which is the specific law of a particular city or county (legally known as a “municipality”), and of the government agencies within those cities or towns. This can cover a wide range of issues, including everything from policing, zoning, educational policies, and property taxes.
