Unit 5: Political Organization of Space Vocabulary

Human Geo (H)

State

Four Characteristics of a State:

1. Population - The number of state’s citizens

2. Territory - The state’s known and recognized boundaries

3. Sovereignty - The state’s supreme and absolute power within its own territory and over its own people

4. Government - The state’s political organization and public policy

Sovereignty

The full right and power of a governing body over itself, without any interference from outside sources.

Autonomy

The right of self-government.

Self-determination

The concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves.

Territorial Divisions

The boundaries between countries and territories.

Federal state

A political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government.

Unitary State

A state governed as a single power in which the central government is ultimately supreme.

Prorupted State

A state that has an extension that protrudes from the main territory.

Elongated State

A state with a long, narrow extended territory.

Perforated State

A state that completely surrounds another.

Fragmented State

A state that is simply divided or separated by a barrier.

Landlocked State

Any state whose territorial boundaries do not touch an ocean, gulf, or bay.

Nation State

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity.

Multiethnic State

A state that contains more than one ethnicity.

Multinational State

A state that contains two or more ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities.

Stateless Nation

An ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own state and is not the majority population in any nation state.

Supranational Organization

An international group or union in which the power and influence of member states transcend national boundaries or interests to share in decision making and vote on issues concerning the collective body.

Terrorism

The systematic use of violence by a group calculated to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm among a population or to coerce a government into actions it would not otherwise undertake or refrain from actions it wants to take.