How to Use self-government in a Sentence

self-government

noun
  • What’s more, a threat to self-government might be closer to home.
    — Colbert I. King, Washington Post, 19 July 2024
  • Teachers talk a lot about virtues, such as courage and self-government.
    — Emma Green, The New Yorker, 1 Sep. 2023
  • At smaller scales, new places have made advances in self-government.
    — Joe Mathews, Mercury News, 19 Aug. 2025
  • For them, local self-government has become a fortress, and the drawbridge is up.
    — JSTOR Daily, 18 Oct. 2025
  • Lincoln warned us that self-righteousness is an acute problem for self-government.
    — Janice Rogers Brown, National Review, 22 June 2024
  • The work of self-government, Lippmann thought—even back then—asked far too much of its citizens.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 29 Apr. 2025
  • The polluters have gained a high degree of control over the processes of self-government.
    — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Myanmar, in the midst of a crackdown by its military rulers, is sprouting new forms of local self-government.
    — Joe Mathews, The Mercury News, 5 Oct. 2024
  • The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the US Constitution.
    — Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 26 June 2026
  • In 1776, few people believed this new version of self-government would last.
    — John Stossel, Oc Register, 30 May 2026
  • Religious freedom and freedom of speech make up the engine of self-government and form a bulwark against tyranny.
    — Kristen Waggoner, National Review, 5 July 2025
  • Our country should be placed speedily above the plane of confessing herself a failure at self-government.
    — Liz Tracey, JSTOR Daily, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows.
    — Tom Rogers, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Apr. 2025
  • Even then, Madison argued that the residents of this new district would not be denied their right of self-government.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 8 Mar. 2023
  • His mother created the nonpartisan iCivics as a way to teach kids about self-government.
    — Tim Dillon, USA Today, 31 Mar. 2023
  • Agencies are but creatures of law, and law is but a creature of the sovereign people’s right to self-government — a government of laws, and not of men.
    — The Editors, National Review, 28 June 2024
  • For most of history, corruption has been known as the central, ongoing challenge of self-government.
    — Zephyr Teachout, The Atlantic, 22 Sep. 2025
  • The rule of law is pursued not simply to punish people but to create a system of self-government that is widely viewed as legitimate.
    — Fareed Zakaria, CNN, 2 Apr. 2023
  • The demands of self-government call on all citizens to appreciate sound standards of ethical conduct — and then do our best to live by them.
    — Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The contentious decision came at the height of Ireland’s campaign for self-government, or Home Rule.
    — Armani Syed, TIME, 31 July 2024
  • The Founders united in their quest for self-government but differed how to actually govern, and whether self-government could even last.
    — Hillel Italie and Michael Casey, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2025
  • Because as our founders knew so well, human nature recoils all too often at the inconveniences and frustrations of self-government.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 6 July 2025
  • Britain responded with more acts that ended self-government in Massachusetts.
    — Eileen Ogintz, Chicago Tribune, 7 July 2023
  • In our political system, all good government begins with self-government.
    — Marian Fry, Baltimore Sun, 11 May 2024
  • Composed of neighbors, parents, and community members, school boards are modern-day town halls where self-government is not just discussed but enacted.
    — Scott Levy, Time, 8 Oct. 2025
  • This kind of love upholds the right of every individual to self-government, reason, and conscience, qualities our founder extolled.
    — Christa Case Bryant, Christian Science Monitor, 3 Mar. 2025
  • Those creedal ideals include liberty, equality, laissez-faire and limited self-government.
    — Melanie Laughman, The Enquirer, 11 Sep. 2024
  • Having a member of the Supreme Court hobnobbing around and taking all kinds of presents from a billionaire megadonor goes against bedrock principles of self-government.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Outrage fades, the unthinkable becomes routine, and the guardrails that protect self-government quietly disappear.
    — Aron Solomon september 3, Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Kropotkin tells us that mutual aid flourishes where egalitarianism and self-government prevail, but that it can be found in even the most repressive conditions.
    — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-government.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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