Municipalities: their closeness to local governments and the debate about their legal nature

Municipios: aproximación a los gobiernos locales y debate acerca de su naturaleza jurídica

Municípios: considerações sobre os governos locais e o debate em torno de sua natureza jurídica

Castellanos Leguisamo, Manuela
Detalles Bibliográficos
2025
Descentralización territorial
Municipios
Naturaleza jurídica
Territorial decentralization
Municipalities
Legal nature
Descentralização territorial
Municípios
Natureza jurídica
Español
Universidad de Montevideo
REDUM
http://revistas.um.edu.uy/index.php/revistaderecho/article/view/1538
Acceso abierto
Atribución 4.0 Internacional
Resumen:
Sumario:Currently, there are more than one hundred Municipalities in Uruguay. These belong to the third level of government and administration, and are essential governance bodies that enable the State to pursue the common good—on a smaller scale—within local communities. In this sense, their purpose is to meet the needs and ensure the comprehensive well-being of the community’s inhabitants, thereby establishing themselves as “governments of proximity.” For these reasons, it is important to delve into their study, highlighting the most relevant aspects of their structure. As a starting point, decentralization will be addressed, understood in this context as a form of administrative organization focused on territorial decentralization. Subsequently, attention will turn to the organizational structure of Departmental Governments and, within them, local governing entities, namely the Municipalities. Finally, after outlining the relevant legal framework, the analysis will focus on one of the most debated topics in the academic literature: the legal nature of Municipalities. This remains a matter of discussion, as it is still unclear whether they should be considered decentralized bodies (non-subordinate bodies with transferred legal Powers) or, rather, deconcentrated bodies (subordinate bodies within the hierarchical structure with delegated legal powers) of the Departmental Government.