As patriots readied for battle and loyalists clung to the British crown, Thomas Paine published “Common Sense,” a fiercely persuasive pamphlet that united Colonists to fight against monarchy in the name of self-rule.

The book kicks off with the death of the mythical king to ask deeper questions about why people continue to struggle with the responsibility — and the power — that comes with self-rule.

In return for the support it is getting from the ethnic insurgents, the shadow government is promising a new federal political system which will give Myanmar's regions self-rule.

Mr. Harris was nodding to the Republic of Ireland’s quest for self-rule in the early part of the 20th century after hundreds of years of British rule.

In 2007, the militant group Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority, which President Mahmoud Abbas leads and which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, from power in the Gaza Strip.