Self rule is the term used to described a people or group being able to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter. Self rule is associated then in contexts where there is the end of colonial rule, absolute goverment or monarchy, as well as demands for autonomy by religious, ethnic or geographic regions which perceive themselves as being un- or under- represented in a national government. World map of colonialism circa 1945. ... The term absolutism can mean: A belief in absolute truth moral absolutism, the belief that there is some absolute standard of right and wrong political absolutism, a political system where one person holds absolute power, also called apolytarchy from Gr. ... A monarchy, (from the Greek monos, one, and archein, to rule) is a form of government that has a monarch as Head of State. ... Autonomy is the condition of something that does not depend on anything else. ...

Self rule is therefore a fundamental tenet of republican government and democracy as well as nationalism. In a broad definition a republic is a state or country that is led by people who do not base their political power on any principle beyond the control of the people living in that state or country. ... Nationalism is an ideology which holds that the nation, ethnicity or national identity is a fundamental unit of human social life, and makes certain political claims based on that belief, above all the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and that each nation is...

See also

• Home rule
• Self-determination