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Uruguay Local Government
Uruguay's administrative subdivisions consisted of
nineteen
departments (intendencias), which were subordinate
to the
central government and responsible for local
administration. They
enforced national laws and administered the nation's
social and
educational policies and institutions within their
territories.
These territories had limited taxing powers, but they
could
borrow funds and acquire property. They also had the power
to
establish unpaid five-member local boards or town councils
in
municipalities other than the departmental capital if the
population was large enough to warrant such a body.
Executive authority was vested in a governor
(intendente), who administered the department, and
in a
thirty-one-member departmental board (junta
departmental),
which carried out legislative functions. These functions
included
approval of the departmental budget and judicial actions,
such as
impeachment proceedings against departmental officials,
including
the governor. At the municipal level, a mayor
(intendente
municipal) assumed executive and administrative
duties,
carrying out resolutions made by the local board (whose
members
were appointed on the basis of proportional representation
of the
political parties). The governor was required to comply
with and
enforce the constitution and the laws and to promulgate
the
decrees enacted by the departmental board. The governor
was
authorized to prepare the budget, submit it for approval
to the
departmental board, appoint the board's employees, and, if
necessary, discipline or suspend them. The governor
represented
the department in its relations with the national
government and
other departmental governments and in the negotiation of
contracts with public or private agencies.
Like the governor, the members of the departmental
board and
the mayor were elected for five-year terms in direct,
popular
elections. A governor could be reelected only once, and
candidates for the post had to meet the same requirements
as
those for a senator, in addition to being a native of the
department or a resident therein for at least three years
before
assuming office. Departmental board members had to be at
least
twenty-three years of age, native born (or a legal citizen
for at
least three years), and a native of the department (or a
resident
for at least three years).
The board sat in the capital city of each department
and
exercised jurisdiction throughout the entire territory of
the
department. It could issue decrees and resolutions that it
deemed
necessary either on the suggestion of the governor or on
its own
initiative. It could approve budgets, fix the amount of
taxes,
request the intervention of the Accounts Tribunal for
advice
concerning departmental finances or administration, and
remove
from office--at the request of the governor--members of
nonelective local departmental boards. The board also
supervised
local public services; public health; and primary,
secondary,
preparatory, industrial, and artistic education. Although
Montevideo was the smallest department in terms of area
(divided
into twenty-three geographic zones that generally
coincided with
the electoral zones), its departmental board had
sixty-five
members in 1990; all other departments had
thirty-one-member
boards and a five-member executive council appointed by
the
departmental board, with proportional representation from
the
principal political parties.
Data as of December 1990
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