Kien-k'ang Council
The Kien-k'ang Council (Shinasthana: 建康斅, kyen-k'ang-gruk) was the body responsible for the municipal administration of Kien-k'ang between 1841 and 1983. It was formed in two stages: first, in 1837, the aldermen of the city's civil parishes (里) were ordered to assemble regularly to discuss matters of public interest, and then in 1841, the Kien-k'ang Senate (邑長老), which was a hereditary body with plenary functions, had its judicial authority transferred to the Grand Jury of Kien-k'ang. The resulting organization had a bicameral structure with some powers particular to each body and others exercised jointly.
The Council's powers are defined by both statutory and traditional bounds, the most general being the Kien-k'ang Council Act of 1857, which was modified several times. Over the years of its existence, which saw enormous expansions in government service, it created offices relating to education, sanitation, transport, public welfare, and other genera, to discharge its resolutions. It also elected an Executive Committee to supervise the execution of its resolutions and the normal activities of its bureaucracy.
It has been suggested that the Council has a legacy tainted by corruption and inequality in several ways. The most notable of which, perhaps, was chronic underrepresentation of the city's suburbs, which by 1980 represented 72% of the city's population but elected only 22% of its aldermen and none of its senators. The standard practice was that new towns annexed to the Kien-k'ang Council—the standard terminology was "to annex"—received two seats in the Board of Aldermen regardless of population, while unincorporated areas received no representation, though most of the city's new developments after the Pan-Septentrion War occcurred in unincorporated areas.