Is autonomy a political phenomenon? What is meant by autonomy?

What is autonomy? Is this a purely political term or a phenomenon that can occur in many other spheres? What are the signs of autonomy?

Multiple interpretations

The term "autonomy" is very capacious. There is a philosophical interpretation of it: the existence of an object for independent existence. If on the contrary, then we are dealing with heteronomy, that is, the absence of signs of independence. There is also a political interpretation of the term when autonomy is an administrative (more often even state) entity that has sovereignty over other entities. There is a social understanding of this phenomenon - the independence of man from other people (personalities or social groups). There is also a psychological interpretation of the term, when the development of personality occurs without the visible influence of any factors.

Autonomy is, as a rule, a subject or a phenomenon (state). An example for the first case is national-cultural autonomy (an institution designed to develop an ethnos), for the second - territorial autonomy, which means the independence of certain areas or plots from others.

Autonomy in the historical context

The term "autonomy" in the political sense of history knows relatively recently. It more or less widely began to be used only at the beginning of the twentieth century, more actively - after the Second World War. In Russia, however, special attention has been paid to such a phenomenon as autonomy. Its essence was studied in detail in Soviet times and was used in practice when creating state institutions of power. Autonomies existed, for example, as subjects within the RSFSR. Under them was understood, however, not state sovereignty, but only a political tool for expressing the sovereignty of ethnic groups.

In the RSFSR there were autonomous political (republics), as well as administrative (regions, districts). The main sign of the first was its own constitution, and sometimes citizenship, and the second - broad powers for self-government. This kind of administrative division was largely preserved in post-Soviet Russia. This historical experience predetermined the emergence of the term "national autonomy". This phenomenon in recent years has become a frequent subject of various political speculations - both within Russia and internationally.

Autonomy: the Chinese experience

An example of a state that successfully managed to unite several ethnic groups within its borders, many of which are completely different from each other in cultural and linguistic terms - the PRC. According to the constitution, China is a multinational state. The Government of the People's Republic of China identified 56 ethnic groups living in the country. The largest of these is the Han people. The rest are often called national minorities. They are endowed with certain rights in the field of political self-government.

Where small ethnic groups of China live in compact groups, local authorities are established. The relationship between the national minorities of the PRC and Han is based on cohesion, equality, unity of the country, as well as the effectiveness of economic development. Given the dynamics of GDP growth in the country, it can be said that this model of national policy is successful. In many respects this is due to the ruling party of the PRC - the Communist Party. In times before communism, the inhabitants of China could not even know about such a phenomenon as autonomy, what it is. On the principles of observing local national interests, today's administrative structure of the country is based.

Political autonomies: the experience of different countries

Autonomy is, if we take the political context, the independence of any territories within the state. This phenomenon is legislated in a number of Western countries. Take, for example, Spain. In the composition of this country there are several autonomous entities - the Basque Country, Andalusia or, say, Catalonia. There are examples of such territories in France (Corsica). In Finland, the Aland Islands are autonomous.

A very indicative example is Greenland, which de jure belongs to Denmark, but it exercises de facto very independent self-government. The same is true of the Faroe Islands. This archipelago, being also a de jure part of Denmark, has, for example, its own national football team. The principles of managing these entities in Europe are quite universal: these regions independently solve issues in the field of social development, education. In the autonomies created by developed countries, the powers of the highest organs of state power are severely limited.

Autonomy in unitary states

There are several basic types of political organization of countries - a federation, a confederation and a unitary state. In the latter, the existence of autonomies, as some political scientists believe, can be complicated by the absence of demarcation of administrative boundaries. However, the basis for giving additional powers to certain territories may, for example, be the ethnicity of the citizens living there. The main task of the state in creating such autonomies is to allow peoples to develop in their usual cultural environment, to communicate in their native language, to conduct life in accordance with national traditions. There are many unitary states where the principles of self-government of ethnic groups have been successfully implemented: China, Spain, France, Finland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Azerbaijan.

The birth of autonomies in Russia

The administrative and political structure of modern Russia gives a sufficiently large circle of powers to a significant part of the subjects of the federation (making them, in fact, autonomies). The first attempts to create such territorial units in our country were applied immediately after the Revolution of 1917. The term "national-territorial autonomy" appeared. This phenomenon was understood as a method of self-government in those parts of the country where there was a special ethnic composition of the population, having a culture different from other nations, principles of doing things, language.

There were projects that implied granting national autonomies very broad powers within the federal state (take, for example, the Federation of Peoples of the Volga region or the draft of the Chuvash Republic). But in the end, the government decided to dwell on the formats of empowering individual peoples of Russia with signs of independence that did not imply full state sovereignty.