AP Human Geography Chapter 8

Political Geography

Political Geography

study of political organization of the world

State

politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government

Territoriality

"the attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area"-Robert Sack

Sovereignty

principle of international relations that holds that final authority over social, economic, and political matters should rest with the legit rulers of independent states

Territorial Integrity

the right of a state to defend sovereignty of its territory against incurrsion from other states

Peace of Westphalia

treaties negotiated in 1648 to end the Thirty Years' War(religious), contained new language recognizing statehood and nationhood, clearly defined borders, and guarantees of security

Mercantilism

associated with the promotion of commercialism and trade

Nation

culturally defined group of people with a shared past and a common future who relate to a territory and have political goals

Nation-State

politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space

Democracy

idea that the people are the ultimate sovereign; the people, the nation, have the ultimate say over what happens within the state

Multinational State

a state with more than one nation inside its borders

Multistate Nation

when a nation stretches across borders and across states

Stateless Nation

nations that do not have a state

Colonialism

Rule by an autonomous power over a subordinate and alien people and place. Creates unequal cultural and economic relations

Scale

representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization

Capitalism

economic model wherein people, corporations, and states produce goods and exchange them on the world market, with the goal of achieving profit

Commodification

process which something is given monetary value; when an object previously not bought/sold is given a price and can be traded in a market economy

Core

processes that incorporate higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more tech; generate more wealth than periphery processes in the world-economy

Periphery

processes that incorporate lower levels of education, lower salaries, and less tech; generates less wealth than core processes in world-economy

Semiperiphery

places where core and periphery processes are both occuring

Ability

capacity of a state to influence other states or achieve its goals through diplomatic, economic, and militaristic means

Centripetal

forces that tend to unify a country

Centrifugal

forces that tend to divide a country

Unitary

a nation-state that has a centralized gov and administration that exercises power equally over all parts of the state

Federal

organizing state territory into regions, substates, provinces, or cantons. central gov represents the various entities within a nation-state where they have common interests, allowing these various entities to retain their own indentities

Devolution

process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central gov

Territorial Representation

system wherein each representative is elected from a territoriality defined district

Reapportionment

process by which representative districts are switched according to population shifts, so that each district encompasses approx the same number of people

Splitting

process where majority and minority populations are spread evenly across each of the districts to be created therein ensuring control by the majority of each of the districts

Majority-Minority Districts

process by which a majority of the population is from the minority

Gerrymandering Boundary

practice of dividing areas into electoral districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible

Geometric Boundary

political boundary defined and delimited as a straight line or an arc

Physical-Political Boundary

political boundary defined and delimited by a prominent physical feature in the natural landscape

Heartland Theory

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland and in return commands the world-Mackinder

Critical Geopolitics

intellectuals of statecraft construct ideas about places, these ideas influence and reinforce their political behaviors and policy choices, and affect how we, the people, process our own notions of places and politics

Unilateralism

world order in which one state is in a position of dominance with allies following rather than joining the political decision-making process

Supranational Organization

a venture involving 3 or more nation-states involving formal political, economic, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives(ex. the UN)