The municipal system in western countries has many characteristics different from those in socialist countries, not only because of their different national systems, but also because of the different specific national conditions that restrict the municipal system.

The forms of municipal system are diversified.

The municipal systems in western countries are also different and diverse. The city council in Britain is the municipal government. The mayor and municipal government of France are not supervised by the city Council when dealing with central affairs. As a representative of the central government, the mayor has some powers to supervise the city council. Although the mayor and the city council of Japan are elected by citizens respectively, the city council has greater supervision over the municipal government. The forms of American municipal system include mayor's committee system, city council system and city council manager system. In addition to some forms in the United States, Germany's municipal system also includes the city Council counselor system and the city Council supervisory Committee system.

There are many reasons for the diversification of municipal systems in western countries. First of all, different countries have different historical traditions. Britain is a country known as the "mother of parliament". At the local level, the parliament simply monopolized the decision-making power and administrative power. France has always been a centralized country. In the dual nature of urban government, the nature of being the subordinate organ of the central government is far superior to that of being the executive organ of the city Council, which makes its municipal system centralized. Japan's political system and municipal system were designed under the guidance of the United States after World War II, aiming at establishing a democratic political system and preventing the revival of fascism, thus expanding the power of parliament and strengthening the supervision of the city Council on the mayor. Secondly, in federal countries, leading local governments is the exclusive right of state governments, and the federal government has no right to interfere. Each state has the right to define its own municipal system through the state constitution and laws. Therefore, it is not surprising that each state has different forms of municipal system. Thirdly, because western countries implement local autonomy, within the scope of local autonomy, the city Council has the right to decide the division of power with the municipal government, the institutional setup of the municipal government and the way to supervise the municipal government.

(2) Power is generated by election.

Political parties in western countries dominate the decision-making power of cities by running for seats in city councils; The elected person controls the administrative power of the city by being elected mayor. Most mayors and city councilors in western countries are members of a political party and have participated in elections. However, a few mayors and city councilors took office as independents, because some voters were tired of party politics. Mayors and city councilors belong to a political party and represent it politically, so their actions are bound by the party's program, organization and discipline. On the surface, whether the mayor and city councilor are elected is decided by the voters. In fact, due to campaign funds, the media's public opinion orientation and ownership structure, their elections are mainly decided by the rich.

(3) Power is responsible to voters and checks and balances each other.

Mayors, city councillors and city judges are generally directly elected by voters, and the executive, legislative and judicial powers are responsible to voters and check and balance each other. In order to follow the so-called "judicial independence" principle, most judges in western cities are elected by citizens. In cities of the United States, Germany and Japan, mayors and city councillors are elected by citizens respectively, and mayors are not responsible to city councils. From the content, because the universal suffrage system and elections in western countries are mainly controlled by the rich, the chief marketing officer, jurors and municipal judges are elected by citizens, but they are actually decided by people with more wealth; On the surface, it is responsible to voters, but in fact it is responsible to people with more wealth. But formally, the mayor, city councilor and city judge are all elected by the citizens and belong to direct democracy; They are directly responsible to the voters, which is better than the mayor and the city judge being directly responsible to the city Council and indirectly responsible to the voters. The city's decision-making power, administrative power and judicial power are balanced with each other, which conforms to the political law that "corruption will occur if power is not restricted".

Local governments are independent and equal.

In western countries, except for a few big cities, most cities have no jurisdiction and counties, and the governments of cities, counties, townships and towns are independent and equal local governments. There are no districts and counties because most cities have a small population, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Similar to county-level cities in China, there is no need to set up municipal districts. Secondly, with the population expansion of a few big cities, the urban population has shifted to the suburbs, and satellite towns in big cities has increased. When the population of satellite towns reaches a certain scale, it will set up a separate city or town, which will be separated from the administrative areas of big cities. Once again, it is because of the tradition of local autonomy. Historically, the county existed before the city, and the county has the traditional local autonomy authority. With the development of urbanization, more and more towns under the jurisdiction of counties are out of the jurisdiction of counties. However, the county still mainly represents the interests of rural residents and will not agree to be under the jurisdiction of the city, further reducing the original local autonomy authority.

(E) Urban interest groups are influential.

The laws of western countries allow interest groups registered with the government to lobby city councils and municipal governments. The activity of interest groups in cities restricts the influence of political parties on urban state institutions. The role of interest groups in the municipal system is: (1) to reflect their own interests to the city's political party organizations and state institutions; Mobilize voters to support candidates organized by political parties to run for mayor, city councilor and city judge; Guide the members of interest groups to support and support the resolutions of the city Council, the orders of the municipal government and the judgments of the municipal courts in line with their own interests; Members of the organization use various forms to protest against the decisions of cities and state institutions that are not in their own interests. The interest groups of the rich, such as chambers of commerce and farmers' associations, play a leading role in the influence on party organizations and state institutions in cities; To a certain extent, state institutions in cities can express the interests of trade unions, women's groups, teachers' associations and consumers' associations, which is helpful to alleviate capitalist social contradictions.

Second, the characteristics of China municipal system:

① The city system of China is relatively unified;

(2) The CPC Central Committee is at the core of leadership in the municipal party committee system;

The municipal government, the municipal court and the municipal procuratorate are responsible to the Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee;

④ Social organizations play an important role in the municipal system;

⑤ The city has absolute leadership over the districts and counties.