Introduction to Political Geography

Other Political Entities

• City-State was the first type of political organization (Mesopotamia)

• Nation is a group of people who are united by a shared culture, heritage, language & possibly other belief systems

  • Usually want to have an independent territory

  • Flemish, Walloons, Irish & Danish

• Nation-states are countries made up of one nationality

  • Homogeneity: countries that are mostly made up of one ethnic group

    • Iceland, Denmark, Mongolia & Japan

  • 99% of the people that live in Japan are Japanese due to strict immigration policies & strong national identity

Multinational states are countries made up of many nationalities

• Canada, Russia & U.S. are among the world’s largest

• Often have one majority group with a lot of political power, but being a diversity nation

  • Usually reflected with national languages where there either isn’t one or there are multiple

Multistate nations are nationalities that spread among many states.

• Ex: Koreans live in North & South Korea

• Another example Hungarians

  • Most live in Hungary, but many also live in the Transylvania region of Romania

Stateless Nations are nationalities without a recognized home country

• Kurds (largest) & Palestinians

• Often been fighting for a state

• For decades Palestinians & Israelis have been in conflict

• Palestinians have not yet been granted a sovereign state

Autonomous region self ruled region within another country

• Hong Kong in China, Northern Ireland in the UK

Semi-autonomous regions having a degree of, but not complete, self-government

• American Indian Reservations

Defining Political Boundaries

Defining Political Boundaries

• Before defined boundaries, frontiers or zone where no state exercises complete political control separated states or countries

Types of Boundaries

• Defined boundaries are established by a legal document

  • Delimited boundaries are drawn on a map

  • Demarcated boundaries are identified by physical objects

    • Walls, signs & fences

• Boundaries are determined by:

  • Natural boundaries are based on physical features

    • Rivers, mountains & coastlines

    • Ex: border of Arkansas is formed along the Mississippi River

  • Geometric boundaries are straight lines drawn by people

    • Ex: Berlin Conference carving up Africa

      • Many of the boundaries in Africa are straight because people

  • Antarctica is the only land masses that has only geometric boundaries

Political boundaries are usually clear, cultural boundaries are more fluid

Cultural boundaries are based on human traits or behaviors & don’t have to be official borders

• One region may have more people that practice a religion than another

• Will see religious buildings or religious clothing

  • No definitive boundary

• Sometimes, there are cultural boundaries based on cultural traits such as language, religion, or ethnicity

  • Often referred to consequent boundaries

Economic boundaries exist within one city

• Seeing wealthy & poor areas

• Sometimes obviously divided by one street

• Nothing official & not on a map

• See deterioration on one side while the other side is thriving

Function of Political Boundaries

Internal Boundaries

Gerrymandering

• Process of redistricting can lead to dramatic manipulations.

• The most well-known example of this is gerrymandering

  • When politicians use redistricting to cement their power.

    • Often based on race, voting patterns, class, etc.

  • Gerrymandering today in the U.S

    • In 1985 made illegal by Supreme Court

    • Allowed to keep existing boundaries

    • Limits the shift of Congressional seats

Types of Gerrymandering

• Five types of gerrymandering & they all rhyme!

  • Cracking is when legislatures disperse a group into several districts in order to prevent a majority

  • Packing combines similar voters into one district to prevent them affecting another district

    • What we see in Louisiana.

  • Stacking is when minority voting groups are “stacked” together, but alongside higher turnout majority groups which dilute their power

  • Hijacking involves redrawing districts to force two representatives in the same party to run against each other

  • Kidnapping is when redistricting moves a supported elected official to an area they are no longer supported

Forms of Governance

• The most today national governments today are classified as democracies

Federal State

• Power is shared between the central government & state or local governments

  • Works well on multiple ethnic group with significant minorities, especially large countries

    • U.S., Germany, Australia, India, , Brazil, Russia or Canada

    • Exception: Belgium is the small country

Unitary State

• Power is held primarily by the central gov’t without much power given to local gov’ts

• Local gov’ts are usually just an extension of the central gov’t without much power of their own

  • Can be democratic (France) or undemocratic (China)

  • Few cultural differences or homogeneous & small minorities

    • France, North Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt or Spain

    • Exception: China is a large country

• Theocracies are gov’ts ruled by religious laws

  • Iran & Saudi Arabia

Defining Devolutionary Factors

Devolution is the transfer of power from one central government to many local or regional governments

• Fall of the Soviet Union

Happened many times before as an empire or country breaks up into several countries, but it’s not super common

• It’s a big deal when it happens because several new states could be created

Forces that Lead to Devolution

• Physical geography can cause isolation due to natural features

  • Kashmir area between India & Pakistan can feel isolated

    • Separated by the Himalayan & Pir Panjal mountains

• These areas have some local autonomy because the physical barriers make it difficult for a central government to rule

  • Other physical features that can lead to devolution include deserts and large bodies of water

Ethnic separatism occurs when minority groups fight for independence

• In Spain, the Basques & Catalans are groups that have a unique culture/ language & desire independence

• Spanish government has appeased these groups by giving them more freedoms & representation

  • The will for independent is strong & the continue to protest for separation

• Sometimes, ethnic separatists use terrorism to reach their goal of independence

  • Basques in Spain have organized a terrorist organization, the ETA, that has used violence to escalate the issue

  • Irish Republic Army (IRA) - unofficial nationalist military force seeking independence for Ireland from Great Britain

Ethnic Conflicts

• Stem from a number of common causes:

  • Demand for ethnic/ cultural autonomy (self-rule)

  • Competing demands between ethnicities for land, money & power

  • Long-standing rivalries between ethnic groups

• Other factors that set places up to have conflict:

  • Structural factors (weak state, interior security concerns, ethnic geography)

  • Political factors (elite politics, discriminatory institutions, exclusive national ideologies)

  • Economic/social factors (economic problems, discriminatory systems, modernization)

  • Cultural/perceptual factors (patterns of discrimination, problematic group histories)

Balkanization occurs when a state fragments into smaller, often hostile, states based on language/ ethnic lines

• Self Determination: Concept that nations or ethnicities have the right to govern themselves

• Ethno-nationalism: desire of an ethnic community to have absolute authority over its own political, economic & social affairs

When the Balkan region experienced ethnic conflict & split into several states

• Yugoslavia was ruled by Tito for decades after WWII as a member of the non-aligned movement

• It was a communist state, but was not aligned with the Soviets

• Tito died in 1980, led to years of uncertainty & unrest

  • Region includes several ethnicities: Serb, Bosnia, Croat, Albanian & Macedonian

    • There were divisions between the religions of Christianity & Islam

Consequences to Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

Centripetal Forces

• Centrifugal- forces people farther apart / Centripetal- pulls people together.

• Sovereignty is initially achieved because the people of a region are linked by common characteristics

  • Centripetal force, unifies people within a state

    • Shared religion, external threats, stable government & common language

    • National holidays bring people together

    • Shared traditions around religion, clothing, food & language

  • Keeping countries together despite the differences that arise & the size of the state

  • Political: Nationalism or strong feeling of patriotism

  • Cultural: Homogeneous or share a common trait

• In the U.S., there are a lot that divide us, but we share a common history, democratic values & national identity as Americans

• Centripetal Forces broke up Yugoslavia then led to the formation of several new states that were pulled together by centripetal forces

  • Croatians had a shared history, language & religion that differentiated them from the Bosnia's

  • Resulted in the formation of two states rather than one

Centrifugal Force

• Forces that pushes people away from each other

  • Differing religion or languages, an unstable government, internal conflict, & geographic features that physically divide people (mountain ranges, etc.)

  • India became independent from Britain, forces that divided the Indian people were the differing religions of Islam & Hinduism

    • Resulting in a mass conflict & eventually a two-state solution was adopted

    • Tensions still continue between India & Pakistan.