Local self-administration

In most modern States, all local affairs are administered by special local government bodies formed on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, as well as by local government bodies specially appointed from the centre. Local or municipal self-governance is a system of local governance that is implemented by special elected bodies directly representing the population of an administrative unit of a given country. The European Charter of Local Self-Government, adopted by the Council of Europe on 15 October 1985, provides a general definition of local self-government, which has in fact become universal and has been adopted by all democratic states. By local self-government, the Charter understands "the right and the real ability of local communities to control and manage, within the limits of the law, a significant part of public affairs under their own responsibility and for the benefit of the population".