Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes (copy)

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.

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.

types:

• cracking : dispersing a group into several districts to prevent a majority

• packing : combining like-minded voters into one district so other districts aren’t affected

• stacking : diluting a minority-populated district with majority populations

• hijacking : redrawing 2 districts in order to force 2 elected reps of the same party to run against each other

• kidnapping : moving an area where an elected representative has support to an area without support

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.

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.

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

created before heavy development of the cultural landscape

• ex. boundary of the pyranees mountains established between spain and france

• based off landforms

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.

• drawn to accommodate religious, ethnic, linguistic, or economic differences

• changes as cultural landscape changes

• drawn to accomodate developments due to a certain event

• ex. Yugoslavia was separated into different states because of political and economic unrest

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.

multistate nations

when a nation has a state of its own but stretches across borrs of other states

berlin conference

representatives from europe met to create claims to form state boundaries in africa

• boundaries showed little regard to the ethno-linguistic, cultural, and political boundaries already existing

the cold war

period of diplomatic, political, and military rivalry between the USA and USSR

satellite states

state dominated by another politcally and economially

devolution

when one or more regions are given increased autonomy by the central political unit

imperialism

broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing another country or group of people by direct conquest, economic control, or cultural dominance

consequent boundary

a type of subsequent boundary that takes into account already existing cultural or physical landscapes

geometric boundary

a straight line or arc drawn by people that does not follow any physical feature

irredentism

A political movement seeking to reclaim and unify a territory inhabited by people who share a common history, culture, or ethnicity.

operational/functional boundary dispute

disagreements on how a boundary functions

allocational/resource boundary dispute

when a boundary separates natural resources that may be used by both countries

shatterbelt

a place located between two very different and contentious regions

• under constant stress

• may face instability or fragmentation

united nations convention on the law of the sea (unclos)

territorial sea-

• extends up to 12 nautical miles

• commercial vessels may pass

• noncommercial vessels may be challenged

exclusive economic zones (EEZs)

sea zone over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources

• coastal states can explore, extract minerals, and manage natural resources up to 200 nautical miles

contiguous zone

coastal states have limited sovereignty for up to 24 nautical miles where they can enforce laws on customs, immigration, and sanitation

high seas

water beyond any country’s eez that is open to all states

small island developing states (sids)

• control nearly 30% of all oceans and seas

• EEZ is much larger than their landmass

• 200-mile eez is very valuable

demarcated boundary

identified by physical objects placed on the landscape, may be as simple as a sign or complex as a set of fences and walls

delimited boundary

drawn on a map by a cartographer to show the limits of a space

defined boundary

established by a legal document, such as a treaty

militarized boundary

• heavily guarded and discourages crossing

open boundary

• unguarded and easy to cross

redistricting

state committees/legislatures redraw district boundaries so that each district contains roughly the same # of ppl

electorate

ppl who are eligible to vote

ethnic separatism

• advocacy of full political separation from the larger group along cultural, ethnic, tribal, or governmental lines

ethnic cleansing

policy designed by one religious/ethnic group to violently remove another ethnic/religious group from certain geography

federal states

• power is shared between the central govt and regional govts

• can offer more support for minority groups and react quicker

• decisions are made at the local and national level

unitary states

• power is located in central or national government (little power is given to regional and local governments)

• hosts a national identity

• certain cultural groups may not be a part of decisionmaking

• most of these states are smaller and are more homogenous (nation-state)

causes of devolution

• physical geography

• ethnic separatism

• ethnic cleansing

• terrorism

• economic/social problems

• irredentism

democratization

a process through which a political regime becomes more democratic