An autonomous city is a type of

autonomous administrative division An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, zone, entity, unit, region, subdivision, province, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree o ...

. The most prominent example of this is in Argentina, a federal country with 23 provinces and an autonomous city, officially called the

Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. In recent years, the term has also been used by the autonomous geographies movement to describe the efforts of urban squatters to fight for community autonomy and self-management.

Argentina

The 1994 amendment of the Constitution of Argentina granted

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

city, previously the

federal district A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, the status of autonomous city, to allow its citizens to directly elect the head of government, which was previously designated by the President, similar to other federal countries. The formal name was changed to Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. In many ways, this district is similar to a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, though its autonomy is more restricted. Another large city that is currently pressing for autonomy is

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

, in

Santa Fe Province The Invincible Province of Santa Fe (, , lit. "Holy Faith") is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 2 ...

. Rosario has nearly 1 million inhabitants (about 1.3 million counting its suburbs and nearby towns), and is usually disfavoured in the distribution of funds and resources, which disproportionately assigns more of its share to the much less populated provincial capital, Santa Fe. Some legislators have proposed that autonomy could be granted to Rosario by passing a law in the ordinary fashion, while others claim an amendment of the provincial constitution is needed.

Spain

In Spain there are two autonomous cities called

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

and

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

, located on the northern Mediterranean coast of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

References

Types of administrative division Autonomous cities {{Geo-term-stub