() is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837. The formannskaps law, which fulfilled an express requirement of the Constitution of Norway, required that every parish () form a formannsskapsdistrikt (municipality) on 1 January 1838. In this way, the parishes of the state Church of Norway became worldly, administrative districts as well. (Although some parishes were divided into two or three municipalities.) In total, 396 formannsskapsdistrikts were created under this law, and different types of formannskapsdistrikts were created, also: History The introduction of self government in rural districts was a major political change. The Norwegian farm culture (bondekultur) that emerged came to serve as a symbol of nationalistic resistance to the forced union with Sweden. The legislation of 1837 gave both the towns and the rural areas the same institutions: a minor change for the town, but a major advance for the rural communities. The significance of this legislation is hailed by a nationalistic historian, Ernst Sars: "So great an advance in relation to the political development of the people that on that account it can almost be placed alongside the Constitution. By it the free constitution was given a broad basis to rest upon and be nourished from, and became related to the daily life and activity of the people in such a way that its principles could penetrate everywhere and be most effectively acquired... There was at that time scarcely any European state where local self-government was so well organized and so widely ramified as it became in Norway through the legislation of 1837." In 1853, the land registration law superseded the formannsskapsdistrikt by introduction of a new designation, the municipality (). Two forms of municipality were created: "rural municipality" and "city" (or "market town"). Each district was to elect a body of selectmen of no less than 12 and no more than 48 members. This body selected a quarter of their members as a committee, which together with the local magistrate, established taxes to be levied and improvements to be performed in the district. The local chairman also represented the municipality at the county level. Almost one century later in 1936, a local self-government district law was enacted which created 682 rural