self-governing
/ˌsɛlfˈɡʌv(ə)nɪŋ
/adjective
1Exercising control over one’s own affairs, in particular:The AAUP has consistently held that academic freedom can be maintained only so long as faculty remain autonomous and self-governing....
- The Athenians were free men because they were collectively self-governing, although they lacked personal independence and civil liberties, and were expected to sacrifice their pleasures for the sake of the polis.
- Political thinkers imagined the American family as a factory specifically designed to turn out self-governing citizens - something quite different from what other kinds of families did.
Synonyms
independent, sovereign, autonomous, non-aligned, free;
self-legislating, self-determining
1.1(Of a British hospital or school) having opted out of local authority control.Direct-grant schools were entirely self-governing and independent, but took pupils funded by the state....
- Schools are now self-governing and what little is left to strategic planning is being hived off to Education Action Zones.
- Staff at Princess Margaret Hospital have been rehearsing and refining their major incident plan since 1993, when the hospital became a self-governing trust.
1.2(Of a former colony or dependency) administering its own affairs.Rapid economic development followed, the country becoming the crown colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1911 and a self-governing colony in 1923....
- Greenland is classified as a self-governing dependency and has been ruled by Denmark since 1721.
- How could a colony be self-governing and still part of the empire?