Regions of Barrayar

In the administrative division of the Southern Continent of Barrayar, the Region is the second of the three levels of government below the national level, between the District and the Municipality. Regions may be further subdivided into mandments and sub-mandments; the latter ones have no autonomy and are used only for the organisation of public services. The Regional government is an administrative branch office with the rank of a national ministerial department and dispatched by the higher-level provincial government. The leader of the Regional government, titled as Regional Sheriff, is appointed by the Minister of the West.
Regions are administered by an appointed Regional Junta and their Regional Sheriff, whose main areas of responsibility include the management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school buildings and technical staff, of local roads and school and rural buses, and a contribution to municipal infrastructures. Both Junta and Sheriff are appointed by the Prime Minister or, in his absence, by the Minister of Interior; however, there is also an indirectly elected Regional Council, which is charged to pass the most important regulation bills.
The Regional Administration is a distinct but not separate branch of the Imperial Public Administration; its positions are part of a chain of command which does not involve direct authorities over Arrondissement or Municipal administrations, mostly because are legally considered as the personal retinue of the Regional Sheriff, who is the only one to hold authority over subordinate heads.

Region-level Cities

A Region-level city is an administrative division ranking below a District and above a Arrondissement. Regional-level cities form the second level of the administrative structure alongside Regions. Administrative chiefs (Urban Sheriffs) of Region-level cities generally have the same rank as a division chief of a national ministry. A Region-level city is often not a "city" in the usual sense of the term, but instead an administrative unit comprising, typically, a main central urban area, and its sorrounding rural area containing smaller cities, towns and villages. In order to become a Regional-level city a Region must have an urban centre with a non-rural population over 66%, gross output of value of industry of 200,000,000 Barrayaran Marks, the output of tertiary industry must supersede that of primary industry, contributing at least over 35% of the GDP.
Urban Sheriffs are assisted by a four-men commission, called "Commission of Public Management". The Commissioners are pertaining to the operation of the following functions: administrative and financial management, urban security management, education of the proceedings relating to crimes committed in the exercise of judicial authority and the municipal territory, within certain limits, in private disputes.

Regional Sheriff

The Regional Sheriff, ranking Southern Region Senior Councillor (the same rank of the Lieutenant High Sheriff), is appointed and dismissed by the Prime Minister or, in his absence, by the Minister of Interior upon the proposal of the District High Sheriff, and directly subordinate to the latter. The Regional Sheriff carries over-all responsibility towards the High Sheriff within his zone of administration.

Imperial Service colonization

Basic template for Southern Regions coats of arms.

In order to spread loyal citizens-subjects, since the 2980s the Government has established several Government-backed, subsided and supported colonization settlements in the Southern Continent (especially the southernmost Districts and zones). These peculiar settlements are under a specific discipline. The goal of secure colonization is achieved through colons drawn from honourable retirees-peasants, who act both as colonists and as militiamen presiding the new lands in the cases of insurgency. These soldiers are unofficially but carefully selected to be fanatics of the principle of "blood and soil". Within each Settlement Area (corresponding in surface to an individual District), 36 to 40 smaller "Settlement Points" are also established, as well as a number of "settlement strings", being the basic element of colonization.
The population of the Settlement Points points is to be circa 20-30% former career military. In the central zone of the of the point there is an urban centre of c. 15-20,000 inhabitants (organized as a Middle Town Municipality, known also as Organized Middle Town), which is to be surrounded by closely located outposts villages in a 5–10 km radius. Villages have to secure the control of all communication nodes. The Settlement Point is administered as a Region, and usually the Regional Sheriff is a retired senior officer. Villages surrounding the Organized Middle Town constitute an individual Arrondissements and may choose freely the landowning form.
The settlement strings are to be located along major routes. These are connected by a major highway, along the track of which the aforementioned urban centres are built, roughly every 100 kilometres. Settlement strings compose the backbone of several Arrondissements. This colonization effort is organized under the "National Service Program" aimed to combine military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements. The "National Service Program" is divided into several parts:

• The military period (the regular 20 years, shortened to 15);
• The settlement mission period;
• Routine security measures;

During the regular military period, future settlers serve together in individual military formations. Usually, settler groups are sorted in order to get a multi-purpose community: engineers, pioneers, clerical work, construction troops, but also combat specializations. As part of their service, the members of the same group are entitled to serve in the same task forces, and to hold regular group meetings. At the end of their military service, members return for half a year of routine security measures activities. The initial settlement mission period lasts a year or a year and half, in which the group performs the establishment of new settlements and expansion of the existing Imperial Service rural communities. After the starting phase, the settler are discharged from active duty and live and garrison their assigned area. They are also provided of their personal weapons, and (limitedly to settlements in unstable areas) some unit weapons.

Related voices

• Local Government of Barrayar