What is Government of Hamburg?
The '''government of Hamburg''' is divided into [[Executive (government)|executive]], [[Legislature|legislative]] and [[judiciary|judicial]] branches. There are two levels of government. * City-wide * local administration, based on the boroughs of Hamburg. As a federal [[States of Germany|state]] the city wide administration has much more responsibility and scope than in ordinary cities. The head of the city-wide and state administration is the First [[Mayor]] (''Erster Bürgermeister''). A ministry is called ''Behörde'' (office) and a state [[Minister (government)|minister]] is a ''Senator'' in Hamburg. The legislature is the state parliament, called ''[[Hamburg Parliament|Hamburgische Bürgerschaft]]''. The judicial branch is composed of the state supreme court and other courts. The seat of the government is [[Hamburg Rathaus]]. ==Political system== There is a clear [[separation of powers]]. ===Legislature=== [[File:Hamburger Buergerschaft.jpg|thumb|Room of the ''Hamburgische Bürgerschaft'' (Diet)]] {{main|Hamburg Parliament}} The power to create, amend and ratify laws ([[legislature]]) is given to the parliament. A [[plebiscite]] and a [[referendum]] is possible due to the Constitution of Hamburg. In other German states the parliament is called ''Landtag''. The parliament is among other things responsible for the law, the election of the ''Erster Bürgermeister'' ([[Mayor|First Mayor]]) for the election period and the control of the Senate ([[Cabinet (government)|cabinet]]). The parliament is a unicameral parliament (only has one chamber) and the 121 deputies are elected in universal, direct, free, equal and secret elections every four years.<ref>{{cite web |title=What is Hamburg Parliament? |publisher=Hamburgische Bürgerschaft |url=http://www.hamburgische-buergerschaft.de/cms_en.php?templ=par_sta.tpl&sub1=225&cont=360 |accessdate=2008-08-14 |archive-date=2011-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719034759/http://www.hamburgische-buergerschaft.de/cms_en.php?templ=par_sta.tpl&sub1=225&cont