unit 4 vocab

State: An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs. (Often used synonymously with "country").

* Sovereignty: Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

* Nation: A group of people with a shared cultural heritage, beliefs, and values, who often see themselves as distinct from others and desire self-determination.

* Nation-State: A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality. Ideally, the boundaries of the nation and the state coincide.

* Self-determination: The concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves.

* Multinational State: A state that contains more than one ethnicity with traditions of self-determination and self-management.

* Multiethnic State: A state that contains more than one ethnicity.

* Stateless Nation: A nation that does not have a territory to call its own (e.g., the Kurds, Palestinians).

* Centripetal Force: An attitude or force that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state.

* Centrifugal Force: An attitude or force that tends to pull people apart, weaken support for a state, and can lead to devolution.

Boundaries & Territoriality:

* Boundary: An invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory.

* Physical Boundary: A political boundary that coincides with significant features of the natural landscape, such as mountains, rivers, or deserts.

* Cultural Boundary: A political boundary that follows the distribution of cultural characteristics, such as language or religion.

* Geometric Boundary: A political boundary drawn in a regular, geometric manner, often using lines of latitude and longitude.

* Antecedent Boundary: A boundary drawn before the cultural landscape was well populated.

* Subsequent Boundary: A boundary drawn after a cultural landscape is already established, so it considers the existing cultural patterns.

* Superimposed Boundary: A boundary that has been imposed on an area by a conquering power or a colonizing authority, ignoring the existing cultural landscape.

* Relict Boundary: A former boundary that no longer functions as an official boundary but is still visible in the cultural landscape.

* Territoriality: A country's sense of property and attachment toward its territory, as expressed by its determination to keep it inviolable and strongly defended.

Political Organization of Space:

* Federal State: An internal organization of a state that allocates most powers to units of local government.

* Unitary State: An internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials.

* Confederation: A system in which sovereign states delegate power to a central government for specific purposes. The central government has limited authority.

* Devolution: The transfer of power from the central government to regional or local governments within a state.

* Autonomous Region: An area within a state that has a high degree of self-government and freedom from the central authority.

* Supranationalism: Cooperation among three or more countries for mutual benefit.

* United Nations (UN): An international organization founded in 1945 to promote peace, security, and cooperation.

* North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): A military alliance formed in 1949 by nations of Western Europe and North America to defend against the threat of Soviet expansion.

* European Union (EU): A political and economic union of member states located primarily in Europe.

* Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): A political and economic organization of ten Southeast Asian countries.

* African Union (AU): A continental union consisting of all 55 member states of the African continent.

Electoral Geography & Geopolitics:

* Electoral Geography: The study of the spatial organization of political preferences and their impact on election outcomes.

* Gerrymandering: The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

* Majority-Minority District: A legislative district deliberately created to include a majority of minority voters.

* Geopolitics: The study of the effects of geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations.

* Mackinder's Heartland Theory: A geopolitical hypothesis, proposed by Halford Mackinder, that control of Eurasia (the "World Island") was key to world domination.

* Spykman's Rimland Theory: A geopolitical hypothesis, proposed by Nicholas Spykman, that control of the coastal fringes (the "Rimland") of Eurasia was key to world power.

Challenges to the State:

* Separatism: The advocacy of or support for separation of a particular group or region from a larger political unit.

* Irredentism: A political principle or policy of advocating the restoration to a country of any territory formerly belonging to it.

* Terrorism: The systematic use of violence by a group calculated to create an atmosphere of fear and thereby to bring about a particular set of political objectives.