German Info: Saxony Baroque Meets High Tech

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Saxony’s Lean Administration

Prime minister, ministries
The State Chancellery and eight ministries head Saxony’s administration as its supreme state authorities. The prime minister, or state premier, is in overall charge, with responsibility for deciding the fundamental direction of policy. His tasks include deciding on the number of ministries and appointing and dismissing ministers, under-secretaries, civil servants and judges. He represents the free state externally and can exercise the right of pardon or reprieve.

State administration
For the most part, Saxony’s state administration operates on three levels. They are the state government (state chancellery and ministries as supreme state authorities), the “middle level” (three regional commissioner’s offices and other supreme state authorities), and the “lower level” (towns that constitute an administrative district in their own right and rural administrative district offices insofar as they undertake state activities, and other, lower-level special state agencies). In the course of administrative simplification departments with a two-level administrative organisation such as the Saxon police now exist.

Local government
In an endeavour to make administration more efficient the number of administrative districts in Saxony has been reduced from 48 to 22, plus seven towns that constitute a district in their own right (Dresden, Chemnitz, Leipzig, Görlitz, Plauen, Zwickau, Hoyerswerda).