The idea of autarky can refer to absolute power.
The term autarky has two different etymological roots, both coming from the Greek language . On the one hand, autarky can derive from autarchía , a concept that translates as "total power." On the other hand, the notion may originate from autárkeia : "self-sufficiency" .
The idea of autarky, in this way, refers to having control over oneself or being self-sufficient . By extension, we speak of autarky when a State intends to satisfy its needs with its own resources, without depending on others .
Sometimes, dictatorships are spoken of as autarchies, taking the first mentioned meaning of the term (the provision of absolute power ).
Self-sufficiency and self-sufficiency
A regime or system that aims to achieve autarky, therefore, pursues self-sufficiency . The objective is to generate the necessary resources so as not to have to request external help. Autarky is equivalent to independence : no other person or others are needed for functioning or subsistence.
In general, autarky is an ideal or a theoretical concept, since in practice it is almost impossible to achieve. A person, for example, has autarky if he or she does not depend on society for the satisfaction of his or her essential needs. That would be the case of an individual who grows his own food, makes his own clothes and obtains the medicines he needs, to name one example.
A country achieves autarky when it can satisfy the needs of its inhabitants without depending on economic exchanges with the outside world and without taking external credits. For this to be possible, the nation in question must have an immense amount of natural resources and developed and sustainable industries that produce all the necessary goods.
Self-sufficiency makes autarky possible.
Positive or negative
As can be seen in the previous paragraphs, the concept of autarky (which is also known by the names self-sufficient economy , self-sufficiency and autarky ), does not focus solely on governments but serves to describe the condition of any society, mechanism, industrial system. , place, nation or person who struggles to achieve a situation of self-sufficiency.
Depending on the point of view from which it is analyzed, said state can be considered positive or negative. Positive, if we understand that the refusal to receive help from an external entity has an impact on greater growth and use of one's own resources; negative, if this results in impoverishment at a cultural level due to limited contact with the rest of the world.
On the other hand, it is important to note that not any country or individual can aspire to autarky, and this leads us back to the previous dilemma. If a nation has enough natural resources to grow its own food and develop the raw materials necessary for the various manufacturing processes that could sustain its economy, then the decision to reject the help of others can lead to a stage of higher productivity.
Various currents of philosophy developed in Ancient Greece saw autarky as an ideal way of living. The fact of being able to achieve happiness by making exclusive use of virtue was considered a synonym of wisdom by the Cyrenaic, Epicurean, Stoic and Cynic schools. The ideal traits of the wise person are ataraxia , autonomy and autarchy , which provide imperturbability, freedom and independence.
Self-sufficiency according to administrative law
In the field of administrative law , autarky is understood as a form of decentralization thanks to which self-government is possible; This is one of the main features of the autonomous entity.
Constitutional law defines it in a similar way, since it speaks of the ability to govern or self-administer, although with the difference of submitting to certain statutes that come from a higher power.