Concejo abierto

The concejo abierto (literally: "open council") is a system of government and administration of some very small Spanish municipalities and sub-municipal territorial units.^[1] An example of direct democracy,^[1] the system allows for the existence of a mayor and a consejo (English: council) or asamblea vecinal (English: neighbourhood assembly) formed by all the electors of the municipality. In contrast, the conventional system used by most municipalities is the ayuntamiento, often translated as city, town or municipal council in English, comprised (in its most basic form) of the local councillors who form the plenary (elected in a party-list proportional representation voting), and the Mayor, elected in turn by the councillors among themselves.^[2]