Home > Self-governance

Generally when self-governance of nation-states is discussed, it is called national sovereignty - a concept important in international law. Self-governance of cities is urban autonomy, and the democratic governance of an ecoregionEcoregions are defined by the World Wildlife Fund as "relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major l is bioregional democracyBioregional democracy (or the Bioregional State is a set of Electoral Reforms designed to force the political process in a democracy to better represent body and environment concerns, e. water quality. This movement is variously called bioregional democra. These will not be covered in this article.

This article focuses on the self-governance of professions, industries including unions, and formal or informal political units including ethnic or ethical 'nations' not defined by national borders, and of religious organizations, which have professional and political elements. There are many historical examples of such organizations or groups, and some, e.g. the Roman Catholic ChurchThe Roman Catholic Church (often called simply the Catholic Church, but see Catholicism for other meanings of the term "Catholic Church") is a worldwide body of Christians in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and subscribing to the beliefs, the Freemasons, the Iroquois Confederacy, have histories going back centuries, including vast bodies of precedent and shared culture and knowledge.

A means of self-governance usually comprises at least the following:

• an ethical codeEthical code s are specialized and specific codes of ethics. Such codes exist in most professions to guide interactions between specialists with advanced knowledge, e. doctors, lawyers, engineers, stonemasons, and the general public. They are often not pa that outlines acceptable behavior within the unit or group, e.g. the Hippocratic OathThe Hippocratic Oath is an oath traditionally taken by physicians, in which certain ethical guidelines are laid out. One traditional version is below but there are others. 1 Traditional text I swear by Apollo the physician, by AEsculapius, Hygeia, and Pan of doctorDoctor means teacher in Latin. It has been used continuously as an honored academic title for over a millennium in Europe, where it dates back to the rise of the university. This use spread to the Americas, former European colonies, and is now prevalent is, the Ten Key Values of Green parties.
• some set of criteria whereby an outside legal code or political authority can be called in - unless the group itself opposes such authority, e.g. organized crime groups which are self-governing almost by definition.
• a means of ensuring that outside authority does not become involved unless and until these criteria are satisfied, usually a code of silence regarding the activities of insiders when conversing with outsiders.
• a process for registering and resolving grievances , e.g. medical malpractice, union procedures, and for achieving closure regarding them.
• the power to discipline its own members, ranging from fines and censure up to and including killing them, e.g. the Irish Republican Army, mafia or Tong groups, and militaries (see Uniform Code of Military Justice)
• a means of selecting or electing leaders, e.g. a voting system, gang wars, identification of divinely selected individuals (e.g. Dalai Lama discovery).
• a means of controlling parties, factions, tendencies or other sub-groups that seek to break away and form new entities that would compete with the group or organization that already exists.

Some degree of consensus decision making is usually involved in any self-governance system, if only because individual members of the group may choose to violate the criteria for invoking outside authority, break the code of silence, or otherwise cause the group to lose its autonomy. For instance, any member of the mafia can, and many do, "rat" (inform) on their colleagues, gaining a new identity, e.g. via the FBI Witness protection program in the U.S.. Such betrayal ends the individuals' involvement in the group, and he can no longer access its unique social capital. However, he will remember the instructional capital and possibly be able to restart activities without the help of his former group. To curtail this possibility, most groups have very powerful means of coercion to prevent breakaway (or, in religions, " heresies") factions from competing directly with the old group.