Chapter 12 The Political Ordering of Space

12.1 National Political Systems

• Most significant element in human geography is the nearly complete division of the Earth’s land surface into separate country units
• States, Nations, and Nation-States
  • State
  • Any of the political units forming a federal government (e.g., one of the United States)
  • An independent political entity holding sovereignty over a territory (e.g., the United States)
  • Nation
  • An independent political unit holding sovereignty over a territory (e.g., a member of the United Nations)
  • A community of people with a common culture and territory (e.g., the Kurdish nation)
  • Nation-State
  • A state whose territorial extent coincides with that occupied by a distinct nation or people or, at least, whose population shares a general sense of cohesion and adherence to a set of common values
• The Evolution of the Modern State
  • Concept and practice of the political organization of space and people arose independently in many parts of the world
• Challenges to the State
  • The world is increasingly under assaults from multiple new agents of economic and social power
• Spatial Characteristics of States
  • Size
  • Area that a state occupies may be large, as is China, or small, as is Liechtenstein
  • Shape
  • A country’s shape can affect its well-being as a state by fostering or hindering effective organization
  • Location
  • Size and shape as factors in a national wellbeing can be modified by a state’s location
  • Cores and Capitals
  • Grew outward from a central region, gradually expanding into surrounding territory
  • Core area
    • Contains its most developed economic base, densest population, and largest cities, as well as the most highly developed transportation systems
• Boundaries: The Limits of the State
  • Natural and Geometric Boundaries
  • Natural boundaries
    • Based on recognizable physiographic features, such as
    • Mountains
    • Rivers
    • Lakes
  • Geometric boundaries
    • Segments of parallels of latitude or meridians of longitude, they are found chiefly in Africa, Asia, and the Americas
  • Boundaries Classified by Settlement
    • Antecedent boundary
    • Drawn across an area before it is well populated
    • Subsequent
    • Boundaries that are drawn after the development of the cultural landscape
    • Consequent
      • Type of subsequent boundary
    • Relic boundary
    • Former boundary line that no longer functions as such is still marked by some landscape features or differences on the two sides
  • Boundary Disputes
    • Positional disputes
    • They occur when states disagree about the interpretation of documents that define a boundary and/or the way the boundary was delimited
    • Once the area becomes populated and gains value, the exact location of the boundary becomes important
    • Irredentism
    • When the people of one state want to annex a territory whose population is ethnically related to that of the state but now subject to a foreign government
    • Resource disputes
    • They are closely related to territorial conflicts
    • Centrifugal forces
    • Destabilize and weaken a state
• Centripetal Forces: Promoting State Cohesion
  • Centripetal
  • When a state is characterized by forces that promote unity and national stability and by others that disrupt them
  • Nationalism
  • One of the most powerful of the centripetal forces
  • States promote nationalism in a number of ways
  • Unifying Institutions
  • Institutions as well as symbols help to develop the sense of commitment and cohesiveness essential to the state
  • Schools are expected to instill the society’s
    • Goals
    • Values
    • Traditions
  • Institutions that advance nationalism are the armed forces and, sometimes, a state church
  • Organization and Administration
  • Another bonding force is public confidence in the effective organization of the state
  • Transportation and Communication
  • Transportation network fosters political integration by promoting interaction among areas and by joining them economically and socially
  • The capital city is better connected to other cities than the outlying cities are to one another
  • Canada and America not only opened up new areas for settlement but increased interaction between rural and urban districts
  • Roads and railroads have played a historically significant role in promoting political integration
  • The higher the level of development, the more resources there are to be invested in building transport routes
  • Mechanisms of control include restrictions on trade through tariffs or embargoes
• Centrifugal Forces: Challenges to State Authority
  • State cohesion is not easily achieved or, once gained, invariably retained
  • Destabilizing centrifugal forces are ever-present, sowing internal discord and challenges to the state’s authority
  • Sub-nationalism
  • Country whose population is not bound by a shared sense of nationalism is split by several local primary allegiances
  • Nationalism has created currents of unrest within many countries, even long established ones

12.2 Cooperation Among States

• Supranationalism
  • The state or condition of transcending national boundaries, authority, or interests Global health governance
  • Associations among states represent a new dimension in the ordering of national power and national independence
• The United Nations and Its Agencies
  • Maritime Boundaries
  • Division of the Earth's water surface areas
  • Water covers more than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface
  • An International Law of the Sea
  • Unrestricted extensions of jurisdiction and disputes over conflicting claims to maritime space and resources led to a series of UN conferences on the Law of the Sea
  • The high seas beyond the EEZ. Outside any national jurisdiction, they are open to all states
    • EEZ
    • exclusive economic zone
  • UN Affiliates
  • Specialized international agencies with affiliated relationships with the United Nations and operating under its auspices
    • FAO
    • World Bank
    • ILO
    • UNICEF
    • WHO
    • WTO
• Regional Alliances
  • These groupings can be economic, military, or political
  • Economic Alliances
  • Common market with a customs union
  • Participant countries have both common policies on product regulation, freedom of movement of goods, services and the factors of production
  • Military and Political Alliances
  • Military
    • Based on the principle that unity assures strength
    • Depend on the perceived common interests and political goodwill of the countries involved
  • Political
    • Generalized mutual concerns or appeals to historical interest

12.3 Local and Regional Political Organization

• The Geography of Representation: The Districting Problem
  • Reapportionment
  • The number of representatives allotted to each district may be modified
  • More than 85,000 local governmental units in the United States
  • Electoral geography
  • Analyzing how the shape and location of voting district boundaries influences election outcomes
  • Gerrymandering
  • Practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts
  • Affirmative racial gerrymandering
  • Advantage classes of candidates in a way that attempts to right historical injustices and achieve greater fairness in the electoral system
• The Fragmentation of Political Power
  • When political groups want to maximize their representation and minimize that of opposition groups, drawing boundaries at any electoral level is not always easy
  • The United States is subdivided into great numbers of political administrative units whose areas of control are spatially limited

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