Autonomy
the arrangement by which the citizens of a state manage their own legislation and government; and this evidently may, with certain restrictions, be the case also within limited bodies of the same people, such as parishes, corporations, religious sects. These districts or communities may be autonomous, if not absolutely, yet within certain defined limits. They may be said to' enjoy a partial, limited, or local autonomy. Autonomy is often used to designate the characteristic of the political condition of ancient Greece, where every city or town community claimed the right of independent sovereign action. Recently the word is more specifically used of territories or provinces, which, while subject in some matter to a higher sovereignty, are autonomous in other respects. The self-government enjoyed by the British colonies may be described as a modified form of autonomy.