Schermer ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsxɛrmər] ) is a former municipality in the Netherlands , in the province of North Holland . The name comes from " skir mere ", which means "bright lake". Since 2015 it has been a part of the municipality of Alkmaar .
33-468: The municipality of Schermer included not only the Schermer polder , but also the polders of Oterleek , Mijzenpolder and Eilandspolder . Around 800 AD, the area that was the municipality of Schermer was covered in peat , and a small river called the Schermer flowed through it. Because of peat-digging and storm floods, this small river had by 1250 developed into an inland lake with an open connection with
66-547: A certain degree of independence in their policy decisions. Municipalities are responsible for a wide variety of public services , which include land-use planning , public housing , management and maintenance of local roads, waste management and social security . After the Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010 three special municipalities (officially public bodies ) were formed. These municipalities function
99-729: A high level of government regulation. Some public services are provided on behalf of a government's residents or in the interest of its citizens. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections ) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income , physical ability or mental acuity . Examples of such services include the fire services , police , air force , paramedics and public service broadcasting . Even where public services are neither publicly provided nor publicly financed , they are usually subject to regulation going beyond that applying to most economic sectors for social and political reasons. Public policy , when made in
132-446: A private corporation runs a natural monopoly , then the corporation is typically heavily regulated, to prevent abuse of monopoly power. Lastly, the government can buy the service on the free market. In many countries, medication is provided in this manner: the government reimburses part of the price of the medication. Also, bus traffic, electricity, healthcare and waste management are privatized in this way. One recent innovation, used in
165-469: A public service ethos who wish to give something to the wider public or community through their work. The process of assessing the needs of the people of an area, and then designing and securing an appropriate public service to meet those needs, is often referred to in the UK as commissioning . The commissioned services may be delivered by organisations in the public sector, private sector or third sector : when
198-452: A theologically and ceremonially correct state religion . The widespread provision of public utilities as public services in developed countries usually began in the late nineteenth century, often with the municipal development of gas and water services. Later, governments began to provide other services such as electricity and health care . In most developed countries, local or national governments continue to provide such services,
231-410: A time by the crown and the alderman are elected by the municipal council, typically after each municipal election. The mayor is responsible for public order and is the first in command during emergencies, all other tasks are distributed freely between mayor and aldermen. The exact portfolio for each person differs between each municipality. Official municipal boundaries were first drawn up in 1832 in
264-633: A white paper published by the Cameron–Clegg coalition in the United Kingdom in July 2011, aimed to create a comprehensive policy framework for "good public services ". It set out the coalition's programme for reform of public services, described as a programme of "wide ambitions" expected to be implemented over a period of time, not all at once. Five principles were to underlie open public services: The journalist David Boyle conducted an independent review for
297-441: A wide range of sizes, Westervoort is the smallest with a land area of 7.01 km (2.71 sq mi) and Súdwest-Fryslân the largest with a land area of 522.7 km (201.8 sq mi). Schiermonnikoog is both the least populated, with 972 people, and the least densely populated municipality at 23/km (60/sq mi). Amsterdam has the highest population with 931,298 residents as of January 2024, whereas The Hague
330-566: Is the most densely populated with a density of 6,868/km (17,790/sq mi). As a second level administrative division municipalities are the third tier of public administration in the Netherlands after the central government and the provinces . The Netherlands is a decentralized unitary state , which means that the central government is supreme and delegates certain tasks to lower levels of government by law. The different levels do, however, make work agreements, which give municipalities
363-470: The Warring States period (5th to 3rd centuries BCE) in ancient China with the institution of xiàn (prefectures) under the control of a centrally appointed prefect. Historical evidence of state provision of dispute resolution through a legal/justice system goes back at least as far as ancient Egypt. A primary public service in ancient history involved ensuring the general favor of the gods through
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#1733085642078396-515: The World wars of the first half of the twentieth century. In parts of Europe , central planning was implemented in the belief that it would make production more efficient. Many public services, especially electricity, fossil fuels and public transport are products of this era. Following the Second World War, many countries also began to implement universal health care and expanded education under
429-663: The Zuyderzee . In the 17th century private investors started draining the largest part of the lake, leaving the southern part, the Alkmaardermeer, intact. In 1635, 47.7 km (18.4 sq mi) of polder was drained, whereupon the land was divided among the shareholders. In 1970, the village of Zuid- en Noord-Schermer was merged into Schermer. The municipality of Schermer included the following small towns and villages: Driehuizen , Grootschermer , Oterleek , Schermerhorn , Stompetoren , Zuidschermer . The latter two are located in
462-538: The Netherlands Since 1 January 2023, there have been 342 regular municipalities ( Dutch : gemeenten ) and three special municipalities ( Dutch : bijzondere gemeenten ) in the Netherlands . The latter is the status of three of the six island territories that make up the Dutch Caribbean . Municipalities are the second-level administrative division, or public bodies ( Dutch : openbare lichamen ), in
495-659: The Netherlands after a cadastre was formed. The Municipalities Act of 1851, written by prime minister Thorbecke , led to the disappearance of small municipalities. Throughout the years, less populous municipalities have been merged . They were either added to the larger neighbouring cities or multiple smaller municipalities merged into a larger new municipality with a new name. The number of municipalities reduced from 1,209 in 1850 to 537 in 2000; since 2024 there have been 342 municipalities. During this time, multiple mergers occurred simultaneously in large parts of individual provinces;
528-529: The Netherlands and are subdivisions of their respective provinces . Their duties are delegated to them by the central government and they are ruled by a municipal council that is elected every four years. Municipal mergers have reduced the total number of municipalities by two-thirds since the first official boundaries were created in the mid 19th century. Municipalities themselves are informally subdivided into districts and neighbourhoods for administrative and statistical purposes. These municipalities come in
561-825: The Post Office, transport, hospital services, and the provision of baths , parks and cemeteries . A public service may sometimes have the characteristics of a public good (being non rivalrous and non excludable), but most are services which may (according to prevailing social norms ) be under-provided by the market . In most cases public services are services , i.e. they do not involve manufacturing of goods . They may be provided by local or national monopolies, especially in sectors that are natural monopolies . They may involve outputs that are hard to attribute to specific individual effort or hard to measure in terms of key characteristics such as quality. They often require high levels of training and education. They may attract people with
594-452: The Schermer polder. [REDACTED] Map of the municipality of Schermer, 2013. The municipal council of Schermer consisted of eleven seats, which were divided as follows at the 2010 local elections : There was an election in November 2014 for the council of the new merged Alkmaar municipality that commenced work on 1 January 2015, replacing Schermer council. Municipalities of
627-551: The UK found that private sector hiring managers do not credit government experience as much as private sector experience. Public workers tend to make less in wages when adjusting for education, although that difference is reduced when benefits and hours are included. Public servants have other intangible benefits such as increased job security and high wages. A study concluded that public services are associated with higher human need satisfaction and lower energy requirements while contemporary forms of economic growth are linked with
660-605: The UK's Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. The principle of choice where possible was embodied in the Choice Charter, published on 16 May 2013, where four choice principles were outlined: Between December 2012 and May 2013, "Choice Frameworks" were scheduled for publication covering NHS care, social housing , school education, early years education and adult social care . Nationalization took off following
693-602: The biggest exceptions being the U.S. and the UK , where private provision is arguably proportionally more significant. Nonetheless, such privately provided public services are often strongly regulated, for example (in the US) by Public Utility Commissions . Examples noted in a history of public services in Oxford include street-repair, cleansing, and lighting , drainage and sewage disposal, water, gas and electricity supply, police and fire services,
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#1733085642078726-672: The districts are called Dutch : stadsdelen , as well as Rotterdam , where the districts are called Dutch : deelgemeenten , consist of such formal subdivisions. The Hague , Almere , Breda , Eindhoven , Enschede , Groningen , Nijmegen , Tilburg and Utrecht have instituted Dutch : stadsdelen as well, although they do not have the same legal submunicipal status. For administrative use by municipalities and data collection by Statistics Netherlands all municipalities are subdivided into districts ( Dutch : wijken ), which in turn are subdivided into neighbourhoods ( Dutch : buurten ). These subdivisions have, in contrast to
759-532: The finance potentially available for expansion to poorer communities. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 is, however, a global initiative which aims to influence the provision of public services and infrastructure for marginalized demographics. Governing bodies have long provided core public services. The tradition of keeping citizens secure through organized military defense dates to at least four thousand years ago. Maintaining order through local delegated authority originated at least as early as
792-452: The funding and guidance of the state. There are several ways to privatize public services. A free-market corporation may be established and sold to private investors, relinquishing government control altogether. Thus it becomes a private (not public) service. Another option, used in the Nordic countries , is to establish a corporation, but keep ownership or voting power essentially in the hands of
825-513: The government. For example, the Finnish state owned 49% of Kemira until 2007, the rest being owned by private investors. A 49% share did not make it a "government enterprise", but it meant that all other investors together would have to oppose the state's opinion in order to overturn the state's decisions in the shareholder's meeting. A regulated corporation can also acquire permits on the agreement that they fulfill certain public service duties. When
858-466: The municipal boundaries were basically redrawn in these regions. In the 19th and large parts of the 20th century, municipal mergers were forced by the central government. This policy changed in the end of the 20th century; local support for the merger is now a large part of the decision-making process. The larger, merged municipalities are intended to handle an increasing workload because more public services are delegated from higher levels of government to
891-439: The municipalities. Another reason for municipal mergers is the assumption that larger municipalities are more efficient in performing their tasks than smaller ones. Municipalities have the right to decentralise themselves and form submunicipalities as an additional level of government. This right and the submunicipalities will cease to exist in the near future to reduce the number of levels of government. Only Amsterdam , where
924-479: The opposite. Authors find that the contemporary economic system is structurally misaligned with goals of sustainable development and that to date no nation can provide decent living standards at sustainable levels of energy and resource use. They provide analysis about factors in social provisioning and assess that improving beneficial provisioning-factors and infrastructure would allow for sustainable forms of sufficient need satisfaction. Open Public Services ,
957-731: The private or third sector is involved the process of commissioning will usually be linked with a process of procurement , to determine who will provide the services, at what cost and on what terms. Commissioning is often seen as a cyclical process. Public services can be constructed, coordinated and operated in many ways or forms. They include government agencies, independent state -funded institutes, government-coordinated organizations, civil society, military agencies and volunteers. Government agencies are not profit-oriented and their employees are often motivated differently. Studies of their work have found contrasting results including both higher levels of effort and fewer hours of work. A survey in
990-432: The public's interest and with its motivations, is a type of public service. In modern developed countries , the term "public services" (or "services of general interest") often includes: In developing countries , public services tend to be much less well developed. For example, water services might only be available to the wealthy middle class . For political reasons, the service is often subsidized , which reduces
1023-470: The same as regular municipalities and are grouped together as the Caribbean Netherlands and are not part of a province. The municipalities are governed by both a board of mayor and aldermen and a municipal council. The municipal council , which is titled island council in the special municipalities, is elected every four years. The number of members in the council ranges from nine members for
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1056-414: The smallest municipalities to forty-five members for the largest. It is the highest administrative body in the municipality and controls public policy. The executive power lies with the executive board , which consists of a mayor , titled lieutenant governor in the special municipalities, and multiple aldermen, titled island deputies in the special municipalities. The mayor is appointed for six years at
1089-416: The submunicipalities, no formal status. Public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private businesses or voluntary organisations, or provided by private businesses subject to
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