Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

Country

An identifiable land area.

Nation

A population with a single culture, also known as a culture group.

State

A population under a single government, implying sovereign territory.

Nation-state

A single culture under a single government, sometimes representing a singular contemporary culture.

Sovereignty

Full independence from outside control, holding territory, and having international recognition.

Multi-national states

Made up of different nations represented by various culture groups.

Nationalism

Derives from an existing culture group desiring political representation or independence.

Stateless nations

Culture groups not included or allowed a share in the state political process.

Federal states & confederations

Provide military protection, administer foreign diplomacy, and regulate trade.

Unitary system

A single centralized government with ultimate authority lying with the central government.

Microstates

Sovereign states with a small size but holding the same position as larger states.

Autonomous regions

Parts of nations granted freedom from central authority for various reasons.

Semi-autonomous regions

Have the same freedom as autonomous regions but to a lesser degree.

Supranationalism

Two or more sovereign states aligned together for a common purpose.

Supranational organizations

Formed for trade alliances, military cooperation, and diplomacy.

Territoriality

The expression of political control over space.

Citizenship

The legal identity of a person based on the state where they were born or naturalized.

Political boundaries

Expressions of political control that must be definable and clear.

Enclave

A minority culture group concentrated inside a country dominated by a different, larger culture group.

Exclave

A fragmented piece of sovereign territory separated by land from the main part of the state's territory.

UNCLOS

United Nations Conference on the Law of the Seas, standardizing oceanic boundaries.

Territorial sea

Sovereign territory from shore out to the 12-nautical-mile limit.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

Exclusive economic rights from shore out to the 200-nautical-mile limit.

Physical border

Natural boundaries such as rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, or deserts.

Cultural border

Estimated boundaries between nations, ethnic groups, or tribes.

Geometric border

Boundaries surveyed mostly along lines of latitude and longitude.

Frontier

Open and undefined territory.

State morphology

The shape of a country impacting its society and external relations.

Annexation

Addition of territory as a result of a land purchase or when a territorical claim is extended through incorporation

Capitals

Seat of government where political power is centered.

Suffrage

Voting rights (which have varied historically from state to state).

Gerrymandering

Irregularly shaped districts designed to manipulate voting outcomes.

Feudalism

Political economy with aristocracy controlling land and wealth, and peasants working the land.

Absolute monarchy

Supreme aristocrat serving as both head of state and head of government.

Constitutional monarchy

A form of government where the supreme aristocrat remains head of state, but the leader of the elected parliament is the head of government.

Prime minister (premier)

The leader of the elected parliament who appoints senior members of parliament to be ministers or secretaries of executive-branch departments.

Free-market democracies

Countries with elected-representative parliamentary systems, commonwealth countries, and other constitutional monarchies or republics that rely upon balancing the relationship between the elected-representative government, its citizens, and business interests.

Republics

Governments free of aristocracy or monarchical control and are fully under the control of the "common" people, as opposed to hereditary monarchy.

Separation of powers

Where the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government are held by separate groups of people that keep each other in check.

Marxism

Karl Marx's political-economic theories aimed at creating a class-free society with no inequalities in terms of wealth or power.

Communism

A political-economic system where the state owns all land and industry, and the government directs economic productivity, aiming for equal distribution of wealth.

Planned economy

An economy that does not rely on supply and demand like capitalism, but rather the central government calculates the economic needs and sets quotas for production.

Geopolitics

The global-scale relationships between sovereign states.

Centripetal forces

Factors that hold together the social and political fabric of the state.

Centrifugal forces

Factors that tear apart the social and political fabric of the state.

Balkanization

The political landscape going from a larger state to several smaller states.

Neocolonialism

A contemporary form of colonialism based on economic pressure rather than political control.

Heartland-Rimland model

A model designed to define the global geopolitical landscape and determine areas of potential future conflict.

Buffer states

Lands that protect hostile countries by creating a surrounding buffer of sympathetic countries.

Terrorism

Planned violent attacks on people and places to provoke fear and cause a change in government policy.

State terrorism

When governments use violence and intimidation to control their own people.

Primary Commodity of Conflict

The resource that countries are willing to fight over.

Definitional Dispute

When border treaties are interpreted two different ways by states.

Locational Dispute

Dispute caused by movement of a natural border.

Operational Dispute

When borders are agreed on but passage across the border is a problem.

Allocational Dispute

When a dispute is caused by a resource lying directly on the border accessible by both sides.

Antecedent Boundary

Boundary created by historical events or cultural factors

Relic Boundary

Former political border that no longer serves as a boundary due to changes in political or territorial divisions.

Subsequent Boundary

Boundary that is established after the settlement of an area, often resulting from political or social changes.

Superimposed Boundary

Boundary created by outside forces, often disregarding existing cultural or ethnic divisions.

Delimitation Process

Borders are put on the map

Demarcation Process

Markers are placed on the ground to show where borders lie.

Expatriate Population

Citizens living outside of their borders.

Free-trade union

No taxes charged on goods and services flowing between member states.

Open-border policy

No border-control between member states.