Unit 5 Vocab Political Organization only

Sovereignty

The authority of a state to govern itself or another state.

State

A nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government.

Federal State

A country where governmental authority is shared among a central government and various other smaller, regional authorities.

Unitary State

A state where laws are administered uniformly by one central government; there are no regional authorities.

Political Boundaries

An imaginary line separating one political unit, such as a country or state, from another.

Physical Boundaries

A naturally occurring barrier between two or more areas including oceans, cliffs, or valleys.

Human Made Borders

Lines drawn by governments that divide up countries, states, counties, and cities, usually represented as imaginary lines on a map.

Autonomy

An area of a country that has a degree of autonomy or freedom from external authority.

Self-Determination

The ability of a government to determine its own course of action of its own free will.

City-State

A sovereign state that comprises a town and the surrounding countryside.

Nation

A group of people with common cultural characteristics.

Nation State

A state in which the cultural borders of a nation correspond with the state borders of a country.

Stateless Nation

A nation of people without a state that it considers home.

Alliances

A union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or organizations.

Globalization

The expansion of economic, political, and cultural processes to the point that they become global in scale and impact.

Supranational Organization

A multinational union or association in which member countries cede authority and sovereignty on at least some internal matters to the group, whose decisions are binding on its members.

Terrorism

The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

Gerrymandering

The process wherein political officials redraw electoral districts to favor a certain political party, ethnic group, coalition, or social class.

Colonialism

The process by which one nation exercises near complete control over another country.