A style of
church governance where the
congregation makes all the decisions about its affairs and policies. The individual church is completely
autonomous - it may be affiliated with other congregations or associations, but it takes no direction from them. Decisions, whether regarding doctrine or day-to-day business, are made locally within the congregation.
Quakers,
Congregationalists,
Baptists (kind of), and various others use this style of
polity.
Unitarians (one of the few non-christian churches to use the term polity to describe themselves) in particular embrace the democratic nature of this style of polity.
Contrast with
episcopal polity and
presbyterian polity.