Council area (Arab Union)

In the Union of Arab Republics (UAR; informally the Arab Union), the 20 union republics and 26 territories each have a single tier of administrative division for local government purposes. Each area or municipality is officially governed by an elected council (Arabic: مجلس majlis; plur. مجالس majālis), and thus each administrative division is known officially as a council area or municipality (بلدية baladiyah; plur. بلديات baladiyāt). Each council can take one of two government forms: mayor–council, the more common, or council–manager: the mayor–council system popularly elects a mayor every four years, who then names the cabinet members who will form the council; in the council–manager system, each member is popularly elected to the council, which then appoints from amongst its members a manager to act as executive on behalf of the council, similar to a mayor but accountable to the council rather than the other way around. The ratio of mayor–council governments to council–manager governments is approximately 3:2, with mayor–council governments being significantly more common in and around urban areas and council–manager governments in towns and rural districts.

Council areas often use different titles for historical and/or geographical reasons, such as "district", "governorate", "township", "city", "borough", etc.; however, these titles do not indicate any difference in jurisdiction or level of authority between councils, with all councils regarded as a single tier of government immediately below the republican/territorial level. Many councils work together on regional initiatives such as regional transportation systems and other economic developments, even establishing regional agencies funded by and accountable to multiple councils; such inter-council governments are, however, unofficial, and do not form a higher administrative level as they answer to council governments rather than the other way around.