Politics in New York has been the topic of many heated debates over the years. Since the 1930's when control was passed from the boroughs to the Mayor, New York citizens have been divided in their opinions on centralisation and those who want power handed back to the boroughs. The Mayor of New York is chosen by a city wide election and holds power for a term of four years.

The Mayor is in charge of budget-making and has the power to hire and fire the heads of police and fire departments. Another leading figure is the city comptroller, who basically advises the Mayor and city council on financial policy and budget preparations. Many of New York's most important policy-making decisions are made by the Board of Estimate, who oversee the budget, planning matters, city-owned property and public improvements. On the board are the comptroller, the mayor and the president of the city council - they have two votes each. The five borough presidents are also on the board and they have one vote each. A fairer method of conducting the City's affairs is being developed as in 1989, the US Supreme Court declared the Board of Estimate was an unconstitutional system.

Over the years, some important businesses have moved out of New York and many people who work in the city, using its facilities, now live and pay taxes elsewhere. The quality of public services and amenities have certainly declined over the years.

New York is primarily a Democrat city, with over 70% of registered voters being Democrat and 13% Republicans. The remainders are made up of small Liberal and Conservative parties. There have been many clorful characters who have occupied the mayoral seat over the years, the most popular was probably Fiorello LaGuardia, who had a crack down on crooks in a 12 year period during the 1930's and 1940's. LaGuardia was the first mayor to be elected for three consecutive terms and made himself popular with New Yorkers by reading comics over the radio.

In 1993 Rudolph Giuliani was elected Mayor of New York - he was in office for 2 terms and managed to reduce the crime rate by 50% as well as overseeing the emergency services and rescue plans on September 11th 2001, the day the hijackers flew two passenger planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. This was also the day the new mayoral elections were due to place but they were postponed for obvious reasons and he was finally replaced as the Mayor of New York in 2002 by a self-made billionaire called Michael Bloomberg.