Home rule: Difference between revisions

'''Home rule''' is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/home_rule|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003225009/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/home_rule|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 October 2017|title=home rule - Definition of home rule in English by Oxford Dictionaries|website=Oxford Dictionaries - English}}</ref> It is thus the power of a part ([[administrative division]]) of a [[Statestate (polity)|state]] or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of [[governance]] within its own [[administration (government)|administrative]] area that have been [[Decentralization|decentralized]] to it by the central government. Home rule may govern in an [[autonomous administrative division]]; in contrast, though, there is no [[sovereignty]] separate from that of the parent state, and thus no separate chief [[command (military formation)|military command]] nor separate [[foreign policy]] and [[diplomacy]].

In the [[British Isles]], it traditionally referred to [[self-governance|self-government]], [[devolution]] or independence of the [[Countries of the United Kingdom|countries of the United Kingdom]]—initially [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], and later [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]]. In the United States and other countries organised as [[Federationfederation|federations of states]], the term usually refers to the process and mechanisms of self-government as exercised by municipalities, counties, or other units of local government at the level below that of a federal state (e.g., USU.S. state, in which context see [[special legislation]]). It can also refer to the system under which the [[GreenlandFaroe Islands]] and the [[Faroe IslandsGreenland]] are associated with [[Denmark]].

Home rule is not, however, equivalent to [[federalism]]. Whereas states in a [[federal system]] of government (e.g., [[CanadaBrazil]], [[GermanyCanada]], [[SwitzerlandEthiopia]], [[BrazilGermany]], [[EthiopiaSwitzerland]], and the [[United States]]) have a guaranteed constitutional existence, a devolved home rule system of government is created by ordinary legislation and can be reformed, or even abolished, by [[repeal]] or amendment of that ordinary legislation.