1. In a data processing system including at least one central authority entity and a plurality of subject entities, an autonomic management method for self-configuring the subject entities, each subject entity belonging to at least one of a plurality of categories, wherein the method comprises the steps of: the at least one authority entity publishing a plurality of rules each one defining a target state for a category, at least one of the rules being conditioned to an authorization, the at least one authority entity granting the authorization to apply at least one selected conditioned rule on at least one selected subject entity, and each subject entity applying each non-conditioned rule and each authorized conditioned rule for the at least one category of the subject entity to configure the subject entity according to the corresponding target state.