Autonomy (political science)

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Autonomous areas are territories within a state that administer themselves internally. They have their own legislative bodies and political structures, but are also subject to the legislation of the superordinate state and are represented by it in terms of foreign and security policy . They are not sovereign states.

Autonomous areas

Autonomous areas are often located within states in which there are strong minorities .

Current examples

Partial autonomy

An administrative unit or a federal state of a state can decide completely independently about its own interests in certain areas of competence. For example, the cantons of Switzerland have freedom of choice in all areas that have not been expressly delegated to the Confederation and as long as the decisions do not contradict the federal constitution . This includes large parts of the education system , internal security , social and health systems .

Certain administrative units of a centrally governed state have certain areas of competence in which they are free to decide their interests. For example, the French region of Alsace has partial autonomy in the otherwise centralized education system . This affects the extent and design of German lessons and regulations on the use of the German language in lessons .

Italy is a special case

In recent years, the state of Italy has devolved some of its powers to the regions. Since then, they have enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy. Health care and tourism e.g. B. now fall more in the regional area of ​​responsibility.

The islands of Sicily and Sardinia and the border regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , Aosta Valley and Trentino-Alto Adige , which are inhabited by minorities , have an autonomy regulated by a special statute (a law with constitutional status). In Italy these regions are called autonomous regions. In fact, the financial autonomy goes further than that of the German and Austrian federal states, for example, since 60 to 100 percent of all taxes are due to the regions mentioned.

Special case Spain

After 1978, 17 autonomous regions were created in Spain . The constitution expressly guarantees the regions their autonomy. But it provides for the respective autonomy statutes are only a flexible framework that allows for individual further or closer autonomy for each region. The Basque Country , Navarre and Catalonia , with the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia , therefore occupy a special position. The three regions have their own police body, the Ertzaintza in the Basque Country, the Policía Foral in Navarra and the Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia. This special role is mainly due to the respective history, which was shaped for centuries by paternalism and oppression by the central government in Madrid (see History of Spain ).

The 17 regions are considered highly indebted. Their indebtedness has risen sharply since the bursting of the property bubble in Spain (2007/8). Since the summer of 2012, this debt has been a public topic in the euro area.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Autonomy  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations