Municipal Administration Act (Arab Union)

The Municipal Administration Act, 2000 (Arabic: قانون النظام البلدي لعام ٢٠٠٠ qānūn an-niẓām al-baladī li-‘ām alfayn) is an act passed by the Arab Congress on 28 February 2000, which was simultaneously passed over the following week (29 February–3 March) by each republican congress of the Arab Union's 20 republics. The Act reorganised the system of local government in the Arab Union, abolishing the previous multi-tiered system and replacing it with a single tier of municipal governments, each equally subordinate to the government of their respective republic.

The reason for the Act's ratification by the republican congresses is because of the federal nature of the constitution of the Arab Union: as most non-criminal legislation falls under the jurisdiction of the republics (and those organised territories with devolved legislative assemblies), the reforms detailed in the Act were entirely non-binding, essentially nothing more than recommendations; as such, the Act's final clause, which detailed how the stated reforms should be implemented, included a formal request of republican and organised territorial governments to enact their own legislation officially implementing the proposed reforms within their respective jurisdictions. By the end of 2000, all republican and organised territorial governments had completed the reorganisation.

The primary and most progressive of the reforms was the total abolition of the three-tiered administrative system of governorates, districts and municipalities, the last of which constituted the lowest level of local government (except in regions with a strong tradition of tribal autonomy, in which multiple villages with their own traditional tribal councils acted as administrative divisions of a single township municipality, in a de facto four-tiered system). The tiered system of local government was replaced with a single-tiered system, in which permanent communities would constitute, depending on their population, population density and physical area, either all or part of a municipality; municipalities would each have a municipal government called a "council" (مجلس majlis; pl. مجالس majālis), which would be responsible for public administration and the provision of civic services within its area of jurisdiction, excluding those services administered directly by republican/territorial governments or the federal government; municipalities are thus often referred to alternatively as "council areas". Village/tribal councils were also formalised by the reform, creating an official two-tiered system in those municipalities where the tradition persists; by 2010, however, nearly 75% of all traditional tribal councils had been voluntarily abolished as a result of urbanisation, modernisation, and the increased efficiency and effectiveness of the reformed municipal administrative system and the associated reduction in bureaucracy.

Theoretically speaking, at any time, one or more republics' congress may repeal the Municipal Administration Act in favour of another system of local government, regardless of the federal government's position. However, the system of local government administration throughout the 20 republics has proved more positive than negative in its uniformity, one such example being a significant increase across the board in the ease and efficiency of coordination of public administration between the local, republican/territorial and federal levels, and as such no republic has to this date actually done away with the system implemented by the Act.