Autonomy means not under the control of another; the control is a matter of degree. Global justice, transcending both country boundaries and culturally based ethics, implies that not just minority groups but all persons individually have a human right to a significant degree of autonomy.
Political autonomy exists when a group of persons or a territory are self-governing, thus not under the control of a higher level of government. Complete autonomy consists of an independent state, but there are autonomous regions that have a degree of self-governance greater than the rest of the country.
For example, in the USA and Canada, many Indian nations have autonomy from both the federal and state governments in their reservation territories. Sales in “Indian country” are not subject to the state or provincial sales tax, and the state laws on gambling do not apply to the Indian land. However, this autonomy is limited since, for example, in the USA, the residents of Indian nations are subject to...
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Foldvary, F.E. (2011). Political Autonomy. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_350
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