ABSTRACT
Autonomy in the legal-political vocabulary denotes self-government. Granting autonomy to an ethnically mixed area allows the people inhabiting to exercise direct control over important affairs of special concern to them, while allowing the larger entity, which retains certain powers over the area, to exercise those powers which are in the common interest of both entities. Autonomy means the legal recognition of minorities and minorities rights. It excludes absolute majority rule in view of the special values of a minority. Autonomy is closely connected with human rights. There is the opinion that personal autonomy did not make sense except as a complement to territorial autonomy. Autonomies have, in principle, a special link with regionalism and especially with cross-border regional co-operation. Autonomy remains a useful, if imprecise, concept within which flexible and unique political structures may be developed to respond to the increasingly complex interdependence of contemporary world politics.
