Political Geography Study Guide

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts in political geography, including state and nation definitions, political systems, imperialism, and supranational organizations.

State

An independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population, possessing sovereignty.

Nation

A group of people with a shared common identity through language, religion, ethnicity, or heritage.

Sovereignty

The right of a state to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders.

Self-Determination

The idea that nations have the right to govern themselves in their ancestral land.

Nation-State

A state where the population shares a similar culture or ethnicity.

Multinational State

A country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders.

Multi-State Nation

People who share a cultural or ethnic background but live in more than one country.

Stateless Nation

A people united by a culture but without a country of their own.

Elongated State

A state that is geographically long and narrow.

Compact State

A state where the distance from the center to any border does not vary greatly.

Fragmented State

States that are divided from their other parts by either land or other states.

Perforated State

A state that completely surrounds another state.

Prorupt State

States that have one portion that is much more elongated than the rest of the state.

Democracy

A form of government in which the people have supreme power and the majority rules.

Parliamentary Republic

The legislature selects the government according to party strength as expressed in elections

Presidential Republic

The executive branch exists separately from a legislature; citizens vote separately for representatives and the president.

Dictatorship

A form of government in which one leader holds power by force.

Monarchy

Form of government in which leaders inherit power, usually through family ties.

Constitutional Monarchy

Power is shared with or dominated by a legislative branch.

Absolute Monarchy

Power is controlled solely by the monarch

Oligarchy

A form of government in which a small elite has ruling power.

Military Junta

A specific type of oligarchy in which the small elite are military members.

Theocracy

A form of government based on religious law.

Anarchy

No government or law; chaos and disorder; a nation in a civil war.

Imperialism

To dominate the political, economic, and cultural affairs of another nation or region.

Empire

A political unit made up of several territories and peoples, usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries.

Colonialism

The process of conquering and settling a distant land, typically by using settlers to move, live there, and directly control the territory.

Nationalism

The belief that your own country is superior to all others.

Supranational Organization

A union in which countries let go of some of their sovereignty to pursue shared goals.