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Districts are a form of local government in several countries.1 Austria
In Austria, a district is an administrative subdivision normally encompassing several municipalities, roughly equivalent to the Landkreis in Germany. The administrative office of a district, the Bezirkshauptmannschaft is headed by the Bezirkshauptmann . It is in charge of the administration of all matters of federal and state administrative law and subject to orders from the higher instances, usually the Landeshauptmann (governor) in matters of federal law and the Landesregierung (state government) in state law. While there are matters of administrative law of which the municipalities themselves are in charge or where there are special bodies, the district is the basic unit of general administration in Austria.
Officials on the district level are not elected, but appointed by the state government.
1.1 Vienna
The State of Vienna, which is at the same time a municipality, is also subdivided in 23 districts, which, however, have a somewhat different function than in the rest of the country. Legally, the Magistratisches Bezirksamt (district office) is a local offices of the municipality's administration. However, representatives (Bezirksräte) on the district level are elected, and they in turn elect the head of the district, the Bezirksvorsteher. Those representative bodies are supposed to serve as immediate contacts for the locals on the political and administrative level. In practice, they have some power, e.g. concerning matters of traffic.
See Districts of Vienna
2 Canada
Historically in Canada districts were subdivisions of the Northwest Territories. These no longer exist, however.
In Ontario, a district is a statutory subdivision of the province, but, unlike a county, a district is not incorporated. Most districts are comprised of unincorporated lands, mostly Crown land. The first districts ( Algoma, Nipissing were created by the Province of Canada in 1858 prior to ConfederationA confederation is an association of sovereign states. Confederations are usually created by treaty but tend to later adopt a constitution. Confederations tend to be established to deal with critical issues, such as defense, foreign affairs, foreign trade for the delivery of judicial and provincial government services to sparsely populated areas from the district seatA county seat is a town which is the capital of a county. It is often, but not always, an incorporated municipality. County-wide politics and government are conducted here. The county courthouse and county administration are usually located in the county (e.g. Sault Ste. MarieSault Ste. Marie ("Sault" pronounced "soo;" nicknamed "the Sault" or "the Soo"; 2001 population 74,566) is a city on the St. Mary's River in Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario. It is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Ga). Some districts may have District Social Service Administration Boards, which are designed to provide certain social services. The boundaries of a federal census divisionCensus division is the next smallest political region below province or territory, in Canada, similar to a county. They are outlined by Statistics Canada to take national population counts every five years. In New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward may correspond to those of a district.
3 China
In the modern sense, a district (市辖区, pinyinPinyin (, pinyin) literally means "join together sounds" (a less literal translation being "phoneticize", "spell" or "transcription") in Chinese and usually refers to Hany pinyin (, literal meaning: " Han language pinyin"), which is a system of romanizati: shì xiá qu) is a subdivision of a city such as municipalitiesDirect-controlled Municipalities are the highest-level cities in China, with status equal to that of the provinces. Geographically and culturally, many of the Chinese municipalities are enclaves in the middle of provinces. Some occur in strategic position, sub-provincial citiesA sub-provincial city , or vice-provincial city in the People's Republic of China, is a prefecture-level city that is ruled by a province, but is administered independently in regard to economy and law. The mayor of a sub-provincial city is equal in statu and prefecture-level citiesA prefecture-level city ( Pinyin: diji shi, literally "region-level city") is an administrative division of China. Prefecture-level cities are governed directly by province-level divisions of the People's Republic of China. Most provinces are composed ent. A district has county level status in China. see District of China
Modern districts are a recent invention. In the context of ancient China, the English word "district" is a translation to xian, another Chinese administrative division. These are now translated as "county". see County of China
