Administrative divisions of Menghe

The Socialist Republic of Menghe is formally divided into five levels of administration, with greatly varying degrees of power over policy. Conventionally, these are known as the Regional, Provincial, Prefectural, County, and Village levels, though in formal terminology the terms "First-level division," "Second-level division," and so on are preferred, as there are multiple types of unit at each level. Because Menghe is a unitary state, local governments have relatively limited authority to write their own laws and manage their own bureaucracies, but the central government may give them considerable leeway over the implementation of broad policy initiatives.

The overall hierarchy of administrative divisions as it currently exists dates back to the Yi dynasty, though it has undergone some adaptation since then. Many provincial, prefectural, and county borders date to this era, at least in their approximate range and scope, and many areas are associated with specific local cultures and regional identities. Major changes included the formation of six Autonomous Provinces after the Menghean War of Liberation, the conversion of Villages and Towns to Communes under the DPRM (and their later reversion), and the creation and expansion of municipalities from 1990 onward.

History

For most of ancient history, Menghe was divided into warring states (國, guk), which used a variety of schemes for subdividing their realms. The most common division names in the historical record are ju (州), generally translated "province" or "prefecture," and gun (郡), originally indicating a commandery awarded to a duke or general. The State of Yang, which unified much of the Meng River Basin in the 3rd century BCE, was divided into a large number of ju and gun, with no administration below that level.

After defeating the State of Yang, administrators in the Meng dynasty streamlined the national system of administration. The country's initial territory was divided into nine ju (州), much larger than the original Yang ones and similar in function to small provinces. These, in turn, were divided into hyŏn (県), translated as counties or prefectures. Ju on the frontiers were later divided into gun (郡), particularly in new areas captured by Meng troops, and were run by military officials.

After Menghe's fragmentation into the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms, five of the Meng dynasty's largest Ju formed the basis for the largest warring states, known as ung (雄), while the smaller kingdoms (國, guk) at their fringes grew out of fragmented ju or large hyŏn. As in the earlier warring states period, lower administration again diverged between different polities over time, with frontier counties converted to gun (郡) as territory changed hands. The Jin dynasty, which emerged from the victorious state of Chikai, imposed a standard ju - gun hierarchy over the Meng majority areas of the country, with a separate scheme of leagues (盟, maeng) and banners (旗, gi) in nomadic areas.

Under the Kang and Sŭng dynasties, which followed the Jin incursion, Menghean administrators developed a standardized three-tier system to accommodate the growth of the administrative bureaucracy. Prefectures (州, ju) were grouped into circuits (道, do), and further subdivided into counties (県, hyŏn). Cities which were provincial or prefectural capitals were designated bu (府), indicating a seat of government.

The broad system of administrative divisions as it exists today was established under the Yi dynasty. At the highest level, the country was divided into Provinces (道, do), which were further divided into rural prefectures (県, hyŏn) and urban prefectures (府, bu). Both of these were subdivided into cities (市, si) and counties (郡, gun). As the Yi emperors expanded their control into the Central Hemithean Steppe, they created new provinces, which were divided into leagues (盟, maeng) and below that, banners (旗, gi), to govern the nomadic peoples there. This system was carried forward without changes into the Myŏn dynasty (1528-1866), and persisted into the Three States Period in Sinyi and Namyang.

The leaders of the Federative Republic of Menghe aimed to modernize and update Menghe's administrative system, starting with the hierarchy of administrative divisions. They abolished the old system of provinces and divided the country into five Federal Regions (聯邦區 / 연방구, yŏnbanggu) - Chŏllo, Donghae, Menggang, Dongbuk, and Sansŏ - and later added a sixth, Sŏnam, representing the recently annexed southwest. Federal regions were divided directly into prefectures, municipalities, and leagues, identical to the Yi-Myŏn nomenclature but skipping the old provincial level, and these were subdivided into cities (市, si) and counties (郡, gun). In an effort to further deepen the government's reach, a new level, the myŏn (面) was added beneath the city and county. In rural areas this corresponded to a township containing multiple towns, villages, and hamlets, while in urban areas it corresponded to a neighborhood or district. Owing to limited budgets and state capacity, staffing of myŏn-level offices remained minimal, particularly in poor interior areas.

After his military coup in 1928, General Kwon Chong-hoon switched from a federal system to a unitary one, reorganizing the Federal Regions into a set of twenty provinces (道, do) similar in scope to the current ones. He also converted Junggyŏng and Donggyŏng into jikhalbu, or directly-governed cities, which were not part of any particular province. Beneath the provincial level, the overall hierarchy remained unchanged, except that rural myŏn were better staffed and a separate category of towns (里, ri) were created to directly manage larger rural settlements. During the Menghean War of Liberation, the Republic of Menghe made no changes to the administrative hierarchy, though on the ground many hamlets in frontier regions were forcibly reorganized into fortified villages.

After the proclamation of the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe, the new Communist government opted for more wide-reaching changes. Donghae Province was divided into South and Central Donghae, and Girim Province renamed to North Donghae; Chŏllo Province was divided into North and South Chŏllo; and Sunju and Hwasŏng were separated from Gyŏngnam and South Chŏllo, respectively, to form two additional jikhalbu. In fulfillment of their wartime promise to the outlying minorities, the government of the DPRM also established six Autonomous Provinces, each named after the local dominant ethnic group and given certain federal rights. During the DPRM's existence, two other changes were made to the local government structure. Municipalities (bu), which originally consisted of a single city (si) surrounded by several counties (gun), reorganized their built-up areas into a group of districts (區, gu), which were further subdivided into neighborhoods (洞, dong). This made larger metropolitan areas easier to manage; the original single-city system was not intended to support population centers with more than 500,000 people. The next change came in 1981, when Ryŏ Ho-jun replaced all rural myŏn with "People's Communes" (인민공사 / 人民公社, inmin gongsa). Service provision, land ownership, and economic policymaking were redistributed to this level, and in many cases small hamlets and villages were forcibly reorganized into central population areas surrounded by collective land.

The system of People's Communes lasted only seven years; the Interim Council for National Restoration abolished it in 1988, reverting to the previous system of myŏn and ri. During the agricultural reforms of the early 1990s, myŏn and ri boundaries were updated to fit the new placement of population centers after forced collectivization. Minor boundary changes would become more and more frequent from the 1990s through the 2010s, as rapid economic growth led to a surge in urbanization. Donggyŏng annexed large swaths of its three neighboring prefectures; Haeju, Anchŏn, and Chŏngdo did the same. As middle-tier cities grew, their governments petitioned the central leadership to convert their surrounding prefectures into municipalities, giving the city government more authority, more funding, and the right to form districts. Where "municpalization" was proposed, third-tier cities in the prefecture sometimes petitioned for the prefecture to be split, allowing them to retain autonomy or eventually grow into a municipality of their own. Likewise, myŏn with large population centers petitioned to be upgraded to ri, and large ri petitioned to be upgraded to cities. In all, the number of municipalities more than doubled under the leadership of Choe Sŭng-min, though as of 2023 non-municipal prefectures still cover the vast majority of the country's territory.

First-Level Divisions

At the highest level, Menghe is divided into eight greater administrative regions (大行政區 / 대행정구, Daehaengjŏnggu). These are groupings of two to five provinces, built around shared geography and economic structure. Unlike the Federal Regions of the early 20th century, which had extensive autonomy, these are "shadow units" with no formal government administration or legislative autonomy. In nearly all practical domains, authority flows directly from the central government directly to the provincial level.

Greater administrative regions mainly exist as statistical or departmental groupings for bureaucratic agencies. The Central Bank of Menghe, for example, maintains a separate branch for each region, and Menghean expressways use a numbering scheme based on the region containing most of their length. Originally, these regions coincided with the MoND's military districts, though as part of the 2005 Menghean military reforms the military districts were reorganized into Southwest, Northwest, South, and Center.

Second-Level Divisions

There are twenty-nine Second-Level Divisions in Menghe, consisting of four Directly Controlled Cities, nineteen Provinces, and six Autonomous Provinces. This tier is also known as the Province level. Setting aside the greater administrative regions, these are the highest level to have a fully fledged local government structure.

Directly Controlled City

There are four Directly Controlled Cities (직할부 / 直轄府, Jikhalbu, abbreviated DCC) in Menghe: Donggyŏng, Junggyŏng, Hwasŏng, and Sunju. Organizationally, these bodies straddle the Provincial and Prefectural levels, functioning as special municipalities which are directly subordinate to the national government. This independence grants them greater autonomy in drafting legislation: unlike other municipalities, they are not subordinate to a provincial government, and they can pass laws through their own elected municipal legislatures . A Directly Controlled City is administered by a DCC Administrator (직할부 지사 / 直轄府知事, Jikhalbu-jisa), and can maintain a formal elected legislature (부의회 / 府議會, Buyihuoe), an institution not present in other municipalities.

Status as a Directly Controlled City is awarded at the discretion of the national government, and is not strictly a function of population or economic output. During the Yi and Myŏn dynasties, Junggyŏng was treated as a special area because it was the Imperial capital, and the Greater Menghean Empire extended the same autonomy to Donggyŏng while retaining Junggyŏng's special status. Hwasŏng and Sunju were converted to Directly Controlled Cities in 1965 because they were the third and fourth largest cities in Menghe at the time, but since then, no additional DCCs have been created.

Province

Provinces (도 / 道, Do, also translated as "Circuit") are the most numerous subdivision in the country, with nineteen in all. A province is administered by a Governor (도지사 / 道知事, Dojisa, also translated as "Circuit Administrator") and also has an elected Provincial Assembly (도의회 / 道議會, Doyihoe) charged with drafting provincial legislation. Because Menghe is a unitary rather than a federal system, the Provincial Assembly must defer to the National Assembly any time two laws come into conflict, and the Constitutional Court can strike down any provincial laws which conflict with its interpretation of the constitution.

Provinces are subdivided into Prefectures and Municipalities. In contrast to Autonomous Provinces, they cannot contain Leagues (盟, maeng), nor can they contain subunits designated as autonomous areas for a particular ethnic group. All provinces must use Standard Menghean as the sole official language of schooling and administration.

Autonomous Province

Six provinces of Menghe carry the status of Autonomous Province (자치도 / 自治道, Jachido), sometimes abbreviated AP. Each of the six Autonomous Provinces was established in 1965 with boundaries roughly corresponding to the distribution of a significant ethnic minority. In the southwest, there are APs for the Daryz, Lakkian, Kungnai, and Argentan people; in the northwest, there are APs for the Dzungar and Ketchvan populations. Like Provinces, these are administered by a Governor with the help of a directly-elected Provincial Assembly.

Compared with a standard province, Autonomous Provinces enjoy greater autonomy over selected areas of policymaking, particularly in the cultural realm. For example, each AP can set its own regional language, which is taught in schools, displayed on road signs alongside Menghean, and used in provincial government administration. Because the Lac, Daryz, and Argentan people mainly practice Shahidism, their APs also allow for a six-day workweek with Friday as the rest day, and treat major Shahidic religious holidays as public holidays.

Like Provinces, APs are mainly divided into Prefectures and Municipalities. The Daryz and Ketchvan APs represent an exception: in addition to these two types, they also contain a number of Leagues (맹 / 盟, Maeng). These are special units organized to support the migration of nomadic tribes.

List of Second-Level Divisions

The following table contains a list of all Province-level divisions in Menghe. Population figures are based on the 2020 National Census, and include non-citizen residents and non-registered persons. Migrant workers are counted in their province of residence at the time the census was taken. As is standard in Menghean statistical yearbooks, the "official area" figure includes freshwater rivers and lakes, but does not include coastal waters. Area is listed in square kilometers and density is listed in population per square kilometer.

ISO	Name	Sinmun	Gomun	Type	Area (km2)	Population	Density	Capital
DG	Donggyŏng	동경직할부	東京直轄府	DCC	10,086	17,286,133	1713.87	Donggyŏng
SJ	Sunju	순주직할부	淳州直轄府	DCC	6,859	22,623,714	3298.40	Sunju
JG	Junggyŏng	중경직할부	中京直轄府	DCC	2,700	6,249,895	2314.78	Junggyŏng
HS	Hwasŏng	화성직할부	華城直轄府	DCC	10,040	12,247,795	1219.90	Hwasŏng
GN	Gyŏngnam	경남도	京南道	Province	160,050	29,402,046	183.71	Sapo
GB	Gyŏngbuk	경북도	京北道	Province	128,871	20,853,056	161.81	Pyŏngchŏn
JR	Jangryŏng	장령도	長嶺道	Province	163,744	17,833,979	108.91	Jŏksan
SS	Suksan	숙산도	肅山道	Province	117,126	5,097,203	43.52	Suksŏng
CB	North Chŏllo	천로북도	千鷺北道	Province	198,429	18,701,375	94.25	Wichang
GW	Gangwŏn	강원도	江原道	Province	113,015	13,335,276	118.00	Yŏng'an
SH	Sanhu	산후도	山後道	Province	190,218	9,362,527	49.22	Jinjŏng
SG	Songgang	송강도	松江道	Province	180,338	15,960,054	88.50	Songrimsŏng
BH	Bukha	북하도	北河道	Province	116,793	13,759,564	117.81	Jinyi
DB	North Donghae	동해북도	東海北道	Province	66,982	14,699,533	219.45	Chŏngdo
DJ	Central Donghae	동해중도	東海中道	Province	81,018	32,724,406	403.92	Dongrŭng
DN	South Donghae	동해남도	東海南道	Province	74,930	37,308,577	497.91	Haeju
US	Unsan	운산도	雲山道	Province	153,697	34,974,053	227.55	Daegok
RG	Ryonggok	룡곡도	龍谷道	Province	97,185	17,445,130	179.50	Yŏngjŏng
HD	Hadong	하동도	河東道	Province	124,053	32,895,605	265.17	Chanam
CN	South Chŏllo	천로남도	千鷺南道	Province	148,709	46,082,072	309.88	Insŏng
HJ	Hwangjŏn	황전도	黃田道	Province	107,667	15,617,524	145.05	Hyŏnju
HS	Hasŏ	하서도	河西道	Province	120,944	20,655,450	170.79	Chŏnjin
RN	Ryangnam	량남도	梁南道	Province	112,384	20,954,216	186.45	Dongchŏn
DZ	Dzungar AP	쭝족 자치도	N/A	Aut. Prov.	350,878	2,865,368	8.17	Selenge
KV	Ketchvan AP	케츠바족 자치도	N/A	Aut. Prov.	97,366	3,002,996	30.84	Ryŏjin
LK	Lakkian AP	락족 자치도	N/A	Aut. Prov.	231,088	34,422,046	148.96	Quảng Phả
KN	Kungnai AP	경내족 자치도	N/A	Aut. Prov.	58,248	4,155,679	71.34	Dài Nióng
AG	Argentan AP	멩국에서 찬족 자치도	N/A	Aut. Prov.	129,031	15,817,178	122.58	Muang Sing
DA	Daryz AP	다리족 자치도	N/A	Aut. Prov.	139,937	5,602,646	40.04	Hasavyurt

Nomenclature-wise, the Argentan AP is a special case. Until 2018, it was known simply as the Argentan Autonomous Province (Chanjok Jachido), following the standard applied to all other autonomous provinces. After Argentstan gained independence from the Republic of Innominada under Menghean supervision, the Menghean government officially renamed its bordering province Menggugesŏ Chanjok Jachido, or the "Autonomous Province of Argentan People Living in Menghe." The short form persists in most informal contexts, including in the name of the Chanjok Jachido-class cruisers.

Third-Level Divisions

Provinces and autonomous provinces are further divided into three types of administrative unit: prefectures, municipalities, and leagues. These types vary in their government organization and their degrees of autonomy. The smallest number of third-level divisions in a province is five, in the Ketchvan AP; the largest is 31, in Unsan Province. Directly-controlled cities function as both second-level and third-level administrative divisions, and are directly divided into second-level divisions.

Prefecture

Prefectures (현 / 県, hyŏn) are the default type of third-level division in Menghe. They are present in all of Menghe's provinces, and all autonomous provinces except the Ketchvan AP. Prefectures are divided exclusively into counties and cities (si), and may not contain districts or banners. Thus, a prefecture may contain a primary urban center, and that center may have an urban population of over 1 million, but the city's administrative power does not extend to the entire prefecture, only to its own boundaries.

Municipality

Municipality (부 / 府, bu) was historically a term for a specially-designated prefecture consisting of a single core city and the surrounding counties, with symbolic significance but no practical difference in administrative powers compared to a prefecture. This changed in 1975, when the Ministry of Civil Affairs reformed the national administrative code in response to rising levels of urbanization and urban sprawl. This reform divided large cities into districts (gu), a new fourth-level division, and tasked the municipal government with centrally administering both the districts and the outlying counties in the municipality.

Thus, despite its name, a municipality nearly always contains some combination of urban, suburban, and rural areas, in most cases grouping the entire metropolitan area under one government. The main difference is that a municipality is much more centralized than a prefecture: it is exclusively divided into districts and counties, with no administratively independent cities, and powers that would normally lie with city governments are passed up to the municipal level. This also means that all urban settlements within a municipality are administratively and statistically part of the core city, though there may still be outlying towns and villages. This makes it much easier for the municipal government to coordinate housing policy, road planning, mass transit, and other types of service provision, as there is never a need to secure the coordination of multiple adjacent but independent city governments.

The provisions for upgrading a city to municipal status are flexible and have been revised many times over the last few decades. In the 1980s and early 1990s a prefecture could only be upgraded to a municipality if its largest city surpassed an urban population of 2,000,000 people, but this was revised in 1996 to allow administratively separate but economically connected satellite cities to count toward this total. Around this time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs began reclassifying some smaller prefectures into municipalities on an ad-hoc basis in an effort to encourage economic growth. Since the last revision in 2011, the creation of municipalities has been left at the discretion of the central Ministry of Civil Affairs. There are general guidelines on urban population, economic productivity, and economic integration, including the share of residents in outlying counties or cities who commute to the prefecture's main urban hub and the feasibility of administering all outlying urban concentrations from the prefecture's primary urban center. The 2011 revision also allowed the MoCA to create new municipalities by carving a core group of districts out of the prefecture but leaving the rest of the prefecture administratively separate under a new administrative seat. This provision was first enacted in 2018 with the separation of Vịnh Thanh municipality from Đà Trì prefecture.

League

Leagues (맹 / 盟, maeng) are a special type of third-level division which exists in the Dzungar and Ketchvan Autonomous Provinces. Leagues were first created in the Jin dynasty to more effectively manage territories where the population was primarily nomadic rather than sedentary, and this practice continued under the Federative Republic of Menghe and subsequent modern administrations. The DPRM recognized administratively separate leagues as part of its promise of autonomy to ethnic minority populations, some of which were still semi-nomadic in the 1960s. One of the main administrative differences between a prefecture and a league is the existence of a Bureau of Nomadic Affairs, which keeps track of the various nomadic tribes in the league. Tribes are permitted to freely migrate within their league and still enjoy legal recognition as league members; if they migrate to another league in the same province, they are regognized as a visiting tribe. This grants them access to local services and the right to graze on publicly held collective land. Municipalities and prefectures do not have bureaus of nomadic affairs, and while tribes are permitted to migrate into these territories, they lack legal recognition and are legally regarded as internal migrants.

Today, some Dzungar and Ketchvan people still live nomadic lifestyles, but most have settled down in permanent settlements, and large numbers of ethnic Meng settlers have moved to these territories. Therefore, in practice leagues function similarly to prefectures, with only a few administrative differences. The name league persists, however, as a symbolic recognition of Dzungar and Ketchvan ethnic autonomy.

Fourth-Level Divisions

County

Counties (군 / 郡, gun) are the most common fourth-level division of Menghe, and can be found within both prefectures and municipalities. The Gumun symbol for county originated in the First Warring States Period, and first referred to a Commandery at the periphery of a larger state. Today, counties are used for administering predominantly rural areas, and can only be subdivided into towns and townships.

City

Cities (시 / 市, si) are densely populated counties that consist of a core urban area and its surrounding countryside. They are sometimes called "county-level cities" or "minor cities" to distintuish them from municipalities, or "prefecture-level cities," which are one level higher. Compared with counties, cities are more independent from their higher prefectural government: for example, they can plan their own road networks and create their own public transportation companies. They also have more power over their subordinate units: towns near the core urban area are reclassified as wards (dong) and may be broken down into smaller sizes.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs recommends that once a town (ri) inside a prefecture (hyŏn) surpasses a population of 50,000 in its contiguous built-up area, it should be reclassified as a city, with the rest of the county's territory placed under its administration. In practice, this is not always straightforward: the MoCA also recommends upgrading a county to a city if multiple adjacent towns form a contiguous built-up area with a population of over 50,000, but "adjacent" and "contiguous" are not clearly defined. This sometimes leads to situations in which a city is created out of a cluster of town-sized urban areas, especially in mountainous areas where terrain may hinder nearby population clusters from merging smoothly together.

District

Districts (구 / 區, gu) are subdivisions of a municipality, including directly-controlled municipalities. They are similar in size and role to boroughs in other countries. Since 1975, Menghean municipalities cannot contain cities (si), so their urban areas are instead broken up into multiple districts to ease the administrative burden on the municipal government. Districts have relatively little power, with most high-level planning taking place at the municipal level and most grassroots-level community initiatives taking place at the ward level. They mainly serve as intermediary units, coordinating service delivery across large numbers of wards and setting the boundaries of policing and school districts.

Nominally speaking, a municipality should be divided into counties which administer the outlying satellite towns and rural areas, and districts which administer the core urban area and its immediate suburbs. In practice, this is never so simple. Often, a district will contain both a fragment of the core urban area and a slice of suburbs and countryside extending outward from the city center, partly to allow room for future urban growth and partly to deepen municipal control over the countryside. When a municipality is created from a prefecture containing multiple cities, cities apart from the primary urban area are reclassified as districts, which may result in a situation where some outlying districts are entirely surrounded by counties and do not border other districts within the municipality.

Because administrative cities (si) cannot exist within municipalities, but towns (ri) cannot surpass a population of 50,000 in their core built-up area, when a settlement in a municipal-controlled county surpasses a population of 50,000, the MoCA recommends reclassifying the entire county as a district. Here, too, actual practice may differ: municipal governments can adjust district boundaries, and therefore may carve a district out of part of a county but leave the rest of the county administratively separate.

Fifth-Level Divisions

In total, there are four types of fifth-level division in Menghe. These are the lowest level of formal administrative division in Menghe, though over time, sixth-level divisions have taken on more responsibilities. Fifth-level divisions are relatively fluid, and can be divided, merged, redrawn or reclassified at any time by the fourth-level Bureau of Civil Affairs. This is especially pertinent in rural areas, where population growth in settlements may lead to the reclassification of a township into a town.

Counties may be divided into towns and townships, but not other types. Districts may be divided into wards, towns, and townships. Leagues may be divided into towns, townships, and gaja.

Ward

Wards (동 / 洞, dong) are a fifth-level division used for managing urban areas. They are found exclusively in cities (si) and districts (gu). Somewhat confusingly, these were previously translated as "blocks," but the new official translation was adopted in 2016 to avoid confusion with city blocks. Wards have limited governing authority, as most services are handled at higher levels, but they do serve as important intermediaries. Each ward is responsible for monitoring the Residents' Associations under its jurisdiction, and they are the first line of response for citizens complaining about disputes with landlords or service providers. Wards are also responsible for maintaining small parks, community centers, and pedestrian roads within their jurisdiction, though without the ability to collect tax revenue, they must rely on a combination of fees, donations, volunteer labor, and grants from the city government.

Town

In Menghean terminology, a town (리 / 里, Ri, sometimes romanized li) is a township-level subdivision which contains at least one coherent settlement with a population of at least 5,000 people. As with Menghean cities and municipalities, a Menghean town typically administers not only the core settlement, but also a broad swath of the surrounding countryside. Exceptions, however, may exist where towns are clustered very close together, or where towns administer sprawling suburbs. An administrative town may also contain multiple discrete settlements, especially if it was upgraded from a township with multiple large villages.

Compared to a ward, a town has more administrative responsibilities, including responsibility for services like policing, education, and medical care. Compared to a township, it also has greater centralization, as the informal sixth tier below consists of communities rather than villages.

Township

A township (면 / 面, Myŏn) is a subdivision of a county which lacks an urban core. Specifically, under the regulations set by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, a subdivision of a county is classified as a township if it contains no settlement with a population of over 5,000 people. A township will still typically contain a collection of villages and hamlets, one of which serves as the township seat and hosts the township government, but apart from the placement of government buildings, these villages and hamlets enjoy equal status.

As of 2022, the Ministry of Civil Affairs does not require that villages reclassify themselves into townships if their core settlement's population falls below 5,000 people, though it does permit county governments to conduct such a reclassification on a discretionary basis. So-called "hollow towns" like these were rare in recent Menghean history, but have become more common in the last decade, as urbanization has drawn migrants from town centers as well as rural areas.

Gaja

Gaja (가자) are a special subdivision used in leagues. Though outwardly equivalent to townships, their administrative duties are modified to suit the needs of nomadic groups, including those which reguarly cross internal and international borders. They tend to cover a much larger area than townships, and have different methods fro assigning addresses and census locations. As more and more nomadic people in the Ketchvan and Dzungar APs have transitioned to sedentary life, Gaja increasingly resemble standard townships.

Sixth Level

Formally, the township level is the lowest administrative tier in Menghe: it is the lowest level recognized by Menghe's Constitutions, the lowest level at which leading cadres are promoted based on a standardized assessment system, the lowest level to exclusively and exhaustively divide all of Menghe's territory, and the lowest level with an official government budget. Below this tier, however, Menghean government agencies do recognize the existence of quasi-independent community bodies, and have done so for thousands of years. Formally, these sub-township bodies are non-government organizations independently formed by members of the general public, but in practice, they are often staffed by members of the Menghean Socialist Party and regularly coordinate with township-level government agencies. The boundaries between state and society have blurred even further from the 2010s onward: many sub-township bodies receive government funding in the form of annual grants, hire full-time staff with that funding, and regularly correspond with township-level administrations via phone and internet.

Wards and towns are divided into communities (사 / 社, sa). These only cover populated areas, and may not have formally delineated boundaries, instead relying on informal landmarks like a road or canal as dividing markers. The Ministry of Civil Affairs recommends that each community encompass 1,000 residents on average, or 800 to 1,600 at the lower and upper bounds, splitting in two after reaching 1,600 residents. These, however, are informal guidelines, and the MoCA also recommends adapting them to suit local cirumstances: where possible, a community should encompass all residents of a large apartment tower, an apartment complex, or a recognizable neighborhood.

Towns and townships are divided into villages (촌 / 村, chon). Where possible, each village corresponds to a distinct settlement, whether it be a large town of 4,000 people or a small hamlet made up of a few houses. Like communities, villages do not have legally recognized boundaries, especially after the decollectivization of agriculture. In practice, nearby villages may agree on an informal boundary when dividing responsibility for community public works projects, or may regard farmland leased by a resident of a village as under that village's jurisdiction. Towns may be divided into a mix of communities within the largest settlements, and villages in outlying settlements.

Formally, gaja are divided into tribes (부족 / 部族, bujok). Historically, this designation was meant to bind sub-township membership to a group of people rather than a parcel of land: a discrete group of nomads registers as a tribe, and that administratively-recognized designation follows the group around even if it crosses into a different league. Many Dzungars and Ketchvans who transitioned to sedentary life are concurrently members of a tribe, which handles ceremonial and cultural affairs, and a village or community, which handles administrative affairs.

Every community in a residential or mixed-use area is headed by a residents' association (주민회 / 住民會, juminhoe), also called a villagers' association (촌민회 / 村民會, chonminhoe) in a village. These are informal, state-sanctioned bodies which function like autonomous residents' associations in other countries. Each residents' association must be headed by a chair and deputy chair, who are elected by residents to a one-year term. The residents' association may hire additional staff, either as volunteers or as paid members. By law, one member of the residents' association must be a member of the Menghean Socialist Party, but non-members are allowed to enter community elections. In the case of tribes, the Menghean government allows each sub-township-level tribe to select its own leaders in accordance with local custom, and does not require MSP members to hold tribal leadership posts.

Residents' associations and villagers' associations are tasked with resolving local conflicts, debating local issues, and holding deliberative meetings with local residents about upcoming policy changes or infrastructure projects. They also organize community social activities, and may hire volunteers to clean up local public spaces and guard against petty crime. Finally, because RA committees are often staffed by Party members, they give the MSP direct integration into grassroots residential life, helping the Party to gauge public opinion, mobilize public rallies, and spy on suspected dissidents and criminals. In 2019, it was estimated that 92% of Menghean residents are under the jurisdiction of a residents' association or villagers' association, giving the government far-reaching grassroots leverage.

Definition of "city"

Within Menghe's administrative hierarchy, there are multiple entities which could colloquially be called city governments in Anglian, despite having very different ranks, structures, and functions:

• A directly-controlled municipality is structurally identical to a municipality, but has its own legislature and reports directly to the national government, not to a provincial government.
• A municipality, or prefecture-level city, is a third-level division below the provincial level, encompassing a large metropolitan area, usually with an urban population over 2 million.
• A city, or county-level city, is a fourth-level division below the prefecture level, usually with an urban population between 50,000 and 2 million.
• A town is a fifth-level division centered on a core built-up settlement with a population of 5,000 to 50,000. Though not a city in Menghean terminology, a settlement of this size might be considered a city in other countries.

In all four cases, the administrative borders of the "city" extend well beyond the built-up area of the core settlement, encompassing a swath of the surrounding countryside proportional to the rank of the city government. Thus, a town's adminstrative area is similar to the administrative area of a township, a county-level city administers a land area similar to that of a county, and so on. This means that not all residents of a "city" are urban residents; residents at the periphery may live in villages or standalone houses. It also means that, except in cases where two especially large cities have grown toward each other, nearly the entire metropolitan area falls under a single city (or municipal) government. Administratively separate towns and townships may exist on the periphery, but they are typically reclassified as wards as the built-up area connects to them. This stands in polar contrast to certain other countries, where a single metropolitan area may be broken up into dozens of administratively separate towns and cities.

When calculating urbanization statistics, the Ministry of Information and Statistics defines an urban resident as a person living within an urban area administered by a city, municipal, or directly-controlled municipal government. As part of their routine work maintaining cadastral maps and enforcing zoning law, town and ward governments categorize all land tracts in their jurisdictions as either urban or non-urban areas, based on guidelines incorporating zoning type, land use, and population density. As part of their routine work estimating population and keeping track of residents, they annually calculate the number of residents living in urban areas in their jurisdictions and pass this information up to the city, county, or district government above them, which adds and audits the figures and passes the total to the next level up. This has two important implications for cross-national comparisons of urban population. First, Menghe's urbanization figure does not include people living in settlements with urban populations of under 50,000 people, unless these settlements are under the jurisdiction of a city, municipality, or directly-controlled municipality. Residents of contiguous settlements under 5,000 people, however, may be counted toward the urbanization total if they live under the jurisdiction of a city, municipality, or directly-controlled municipality, provided that their settlement meets the Ministry of Information and Statistics' definition of urban land use (e.g., a standalone high-rise building or medium-rise apartment complex not directly adjacent to other urban land plots). On balance, these considerations mean that Menghe's urbanization figure is somewhat lower than what it would be when using a more standard 5,000 or 2,500-person cutoff between rural and urban areas.

Reclassification

The Ministry of Civil Affairs at the national level, and its subordinate Bureaus of Civil Affairs at the provincial level on downward, are responsible for updating administrative boundaries at the next level below them. This includes:

• Adjusting the boundary between two administrative units, usually by transferring entire subunits of those units from one to another;
• Merging administrative units together;
• Carving new administrative units out of existing ones; and
• Reclassifying administrative units (e.g., counties to cities) based on urban population.

The national-level Ministry of Civil Affairs maintains general guidelines that specify the conditions under which one administrative unit should be converted into another. Some of these, like the 50,000-resident-core-town threshold at which a county is converted into a city, are relatively rigid; others, like the guidelines for creating new municipalities, are relatively flexible, and allow some adaptation to suit local circumstances. During the economic reform era, many local governments sought to exploit loopholes in these guidelines, for example by treating a cluster of towns as a single urban area in order to surpass the 50,000-resident threshold or by upgrading a prefecture to a municipality in anticipation of future growth.

Proposed revisions

New provincial map

In 2010, the NSCC debated a proposal by In Jae-sŭng, a prominent Menghean geographer, to increase the number of provinces to 44. This would be done by breaking up the largest and most populous provinces and reviving some former provincial units from the Myŏn, Yi, and Sung dynasties. Gyŏngsan, Insŏng, Anchŏn, and Haeju would also be upgraded to the status of Directly Controlled City. As part of the same reform, the National Assembly would abolish the Prefecture as a unit of government through a constitutional amendment, allowing the smaller Provinces to directly administer Counties. This proposal was ultimately rejected, as it would overburden some provincial governments with a large number of counties and overburden the central government with a larger number of provinces. Nevertheless, some elements of In Jae-sŭng's proposal have periodically resurfaced in NSCC debates and popular petitions, most notably the separation of Unsan Province into West Unsan and East Unsan, the separation of South Chŏllo Province into South Chŏllo and Central Chŏllo, and the separation of the Lakkian Autonomous Province into upper (Sanbuk) and lower (Sannam) sections.

Renaming of the Argentan Autonomous Province

After suppressing the Innominadan Uprising, some Menghean policymakers expressed concern over the fact that with the approval of Argentstan's secession referendum, there would be an independent state of Argentstan on Menghe's southwestern border. The incoming Argentstani leadership has generally expressed strongly pro-Menghe views, as Menghe allowed the secession referendum to go forward and worked hard to oppose violence against ethnic Argentans by Innominadan Creoles. Yet some figures in the Menghean government expressed concern that Argentstan, which already claims a large swath of territory in the Maverican-backed People's Republic of Innominada, could one day lay claim to Argentan-majority areas in Menghe.

In a pre-emptive bid to soothe tensions and express goodwill, the Menghean government opted to revise the name of its southwesternmost province, officially labeling it Menggugesŏ Chanjok Jachido. This translates to "Autonomous Province for Argentan People Living in Menghe." The new wording, hastily passed through the National Assembly shortly before Argentstan's independence became official, is intended to imply that (1) Argentans living in Menghe are a culturally distinct group from Argentans in the former Innominada; (2) Menghe does not claim sovereignty over Argentans outside its borders; and (3) the Argentan autonomous province is not a part of the independent state of Argentstan.

The renaming drew no comment from Argentstan's new leadership, and attracted only minor attention from independent commentators in Argentstan. The Argentstani government has repeatedly stressed that it does not lay claim to any territory in Menghe, though Menghe still exerts massive political and military influence in Argentstan. Menghean internet commentators made light of the renaming, or pointed out that no similar changes had been applied to the Dzungar and Ketchvan autonomous provinces (there is a neighboring Ketchvan region in Polvokia). Some Argentan activist groups in Menghe criticized the move on different grounds, claiming that it represented a missed opportunity to recognize their culturally distinct identity as North Chan people rather than Menghean Argentans. Regardless, although most road signs and government documents have been updated to reflect the new name, Chanjok Jachido remains more common in informal circles, and is persists in some official contexts, most notably as the name of the first Chanjok Jachido-class cruiser.

Ro River Delta zone

Activists and politicians in the city of Sunju have periodically promoted the idea of creating some kind of combined administrative government for the Ro River Delta, which is currently split between South Chŏllo Province, Ryangnam Province, and Sunju DCM, despite a high degree of economic and commuter integration between the multiple large cities in the area. The most ambitious of these proposals would establish a new province combining Sunju with Yobu prefecture, the southwest corner of Ryangnam province out to Dongchŏn, and the core of South Chŏllo Province up to Busin. To date, the Menghean central government has categorically dismissed these schemes, though the Ministry of Civil Affairs did transfer four counties and two cities from Binju prefecture and Oju prefecture to Sunju DCM in 2019.

A more feasible proposal gained traction in 2017, with the launching of the Ro River Delta Joint Development Zone. This is a special joint policymaking body bringing together representatives from the cities and municipalities listed below. It is headquartered in the city of Hŭngun in Pyŏngsŭb Prefecture, part of Ryangnam Province, in what some analysts see as an effort to prevent Sunju from regarding itself as the political leader of the coalition. The Ro River Delta Joint Development Zone also lacks formal status as a constitutional administrative division, with all municipalities and prefectures within its scope still reporting primarily to their respective provincial or national governments; its responsibilities are largely confined to economic coordination, infrastructure planning, and the placement of new urban development zones.

Haeju Directly-Controlled Municipality

Ever since Haeju surpassed Hwasŏng in population, Haeju's residents have periodically clamored for their city to be upgraded to the status of Directly-Controlled Municipality. With a population of slightly over 14 million people in the 2020 census, Haeju contains nearly twice as many residents as Hyangchun, the capital of South Donghae Province, and nearly as many residents as the entirety of North Donghae Province. The National Assembly has given serious thought to upgrading Haeju, but the ultimate authority to create new directly-controlled municipalities lies with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which has not exercised this power since 1965. For its part, the MoCA has generally resisted plans to separate Haeju from South Donghae Province, officially on the basis that the two are too economically interconnected.

See also

• List of largest cities in Menghe