Autonomous City

A autonomous city is an administrative division with special status that encompasses only one city or conurbation. In most cases, it is a single municipality (or a central municipality with a group of smaller municipalities) that is not integrated into any intermediate-rank administrative division.

The autonomous city must be differentiated from the city-State, which is an independent and sovereign entity, internationally recognized, since the autonomous city is always part of a sovereign state that contains it.

Administrative status

In the case of a unitary state, the administration of the autonomous city is usually analogous to that of any administrative subdivision thereof, such as a canton, party, department, province, or region. In federal states, the autonomous city is generally equivalent to a state. However, autonomous cities may exist within a federal state.

Autonomous cities in the world

The specific denomination of "autonomous city" is only officially applied in Spain (Ceuta and Melilla) and in Argentina (Buenos Aires), the concept has been applied to other cities, since it refers to any municipality that is equated to an intermediate administrative division, with limited or no sovereignty, within a sovereign state.

• Federal District (capital of a federal country)
• Capital District (capital of a country, generally non-federal)
• Municipality under central jurisdiction (any subnational entity)

History

In the Holy Roman Empire, as well as in its successor states the German Confederation and the German Empire, there were so-called "free imperial cities" (in German: freie Reichsstadt) which could not be subordinated to any other secular or ecclesiastical lord, being submitted solely to imperial authority. Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck in Germany and, according to some, the free communes in Italy are the best-known historical examples.

Germany

Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin are the autonomous cities of Germany. They are called Stadt-Staat, 'city-state' (Berlin) or Freie (und) Hansestadt, 'free (and) Hanseatic city' (Bremen and Hamburg). Although the federal government considers them Land (federated state), they are not Flächenländer, 'surface states', like the rest of the Länder.

Argentina

In the Argentine Republic, article 129 of the Argentine constitutional reform of 1994 granted the rank of autonomous city to Buenos Aires, which gives it a status practically comparable —in almost every way— to that of any province of Argentina, thus having representatives in the Congress of the Argentine Republic as well as its own legislature.

Chinese

This type of administration is known in China simply as a first-level municipality (市 city/municipality) and is present in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing, functioning alongside the province.

There are many administrations with the name of autonomy but it has nothing to do with it. They are only urban agglomerations where ethnic groups reside and there are special regulations to protect these communities.

These areas are recognized in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and are nominally assigned a number of rights not granted to other administrative divisions. The real degree of autonomy of these regions is questioned. This is because their authority rests with the Constitution and the Regional Autonomy Law, which require leaders to obtain prior approval from the National People's Assembly to pass legislation.

Spain

The autonomous cities of Spain are Ceuta and Melilla, located in North Africa and bordering Morocco. These two cities have powers superior to those of a municipality (they can decree executive regulations), but inferior to those of an autonomous community (since they do not have legislative chambers as such).

United States

Washington D.C., capital of the United States of America, coincides with the District of Columbia (DC), which is not one of the 50 states of the Union. Columbia was a symbolic name received by the United States at that time. Although in 1790 the District of Columbia was created with parts of the territory of Maryland and Virginia, the latter state regained its ceded territory in 1846. The original territory was in the shape of a 100 km² square on both sides of the Potomac River.