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Ap hug unit 4 explain the scales of a graph, explain the term sovereign,  describe the pros and cons of a federal State, and describe the pros and cons of the European Union based on this info:

Independent states are the primary building blocks of the world political

map.

Types of political entities include nations, nation-states, stateless nations,

multinational states, multistate nations, and autonomous and

semiautonomous regions, such as American Indian reservations.

NATION

Cultural unit, common ancestry

occupying a particular territory

Example:

Kurds

NATION-STATE

Definition:

A state in which the cultural borders of

a nation correspond with the state

borders of a country

Territory matches culture

Example:

Japan

Denmark

Poland

STATE-LESS NATION

Definition:

A nation of people without a state that it

considers home

Example:

Kurds, Basques,

Palestinians

MULTINATIONAL STATE

Definition:

A state that contains more than one

nation, and no single ethnic group

dominates the population

Every state to a degree is multinational

(no state has 100% of a single

ethnicity)

Example:

Former Yugoslavia,

former USSR, Lebanon

MULITSTATE NATION

Definition:

Nation stretches across borders and

across states

people share a common characteristic

and live in multiple states.

Example:

Kurds, Koreans

AUTONOMOUS REGION SEMI-AUTONOMOUS REGION

• sections of a nation that have a degree of

independence in several issues.

• control over certain affairs, make own

decisions

• many regions in China, Aland islands

• having a degree of, but not complete, self-

government.

• Native Americans

The concepts of sovereignty, nation-states, and self-determination shape

the contemporary world.

! Sovereignty: the political authority of a state to govern itself

! Nation-states: a country whose political boundaries correspond with its cultural

boundaries.

! Self-determination: the process by which a group of people, usually possessing a certain

degree of national consciousness, form their own state and choose their own government

Colonialism, imperialism, independence movements, and devolution along

national lines have influenced contemporary political boundaries.

! Colonialism: the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another

country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

! Imperialism: a policy or ideology of extending a country's rule over foreign nations, often

by military force or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

! Independence movement: effort by people to create a new sovereign state in a place

inside of another state (devolution failed)

! devolution: Process of transferring some power from the central government to regional

government. Transfer of power that occurs when a state breaks up, when regions that

were once unified in one, central government gain power, and sometimes, independen

Political power is expressed geographically as control over people, land and

resources, as illustrated by neocolonialism, shatterbelts, and choke points.

! Neocolonialism or neo-imperialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization and

cultural imperialism to influence a developing country instead of the previous colonial

methods of direct military control or indirect political control.

Shatterbelt/Shatterbelt Theory: a region caught between stronger colliding forces, under

persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals. Cohen’s theory predicted that

armed conflicts after 1950 would likely occur in areas within the Inner Crescent or Middle

East

! Examples: Eastern Europe, Vietnam during Cold War, India and Pakistan over

Kashmir

• Chokepoints: In military strategy, a choke point is a geographical feature on land such as a

valley, defile or a bridge or at sea such as a strait, which an armed force is forced to pass,

sometimes on a substantially narrower front and therefore greatly decreasing its combat

power, to reach its objective. Cohen’s theory predicted that armed conflicts after 1950 would

likely occur in areas within the Inner Crescent or Middle East

Territoriality is the connection of people, their culture, and their economic

systems to the land.

Types of political boundaries include relic, superimposed, subsequent,

antecedent, geometric, and consequent boundaries

RELIC BOUNDARY

! No longer functions as boundary, reminder a line once divided space

! Example: Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China

SUPERIMPOSED BOUNDARY

! Forcibly put on landscape by an outside party,

! ignores cultures

! example: African countries

SUBSEQUENT BOUNDARY

! Evolves as the cultural landscape takes shape

! Developed because of settlement patterns

ANTECEDENT BOUNDARY

! Existed before human cultures developed into their current forms

! usually physical

GEOMETRIC BOUNDARY

! A boundary created by using lines of latitude and longitude and their associated arcs.

CONSEQUENT BOUNDARY

! A boundary line that coincides with some cultural divide, such as religion or language

Boundaries are defined, delimited, demarcated and administered to

establish limits of sovereignty, but they are often contested.

! Fortified boundary: When a state creates a wall or physical boundary

! Demarcation: Boundary is marked on the ground. Engineers and construction

workers involved - Stone pillars, walls, etc

! Delimitation: the drawing of boundaries

Political boundaries often coincide with cultural, national, or economic

divisions. However, some boundaries are created by demilitarized zones or

policy, such as the Berlin Conference.

! Demilitarized zone: DMZ or DZ is an area in which treaties or agreements between

nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities or

personnel. A DMZ often lies along an established frontier or boundary between two or

more military powers or alliance

! Berlin Conference: 1884–85, also known

as the Congo Conference or West Africa

Conference, regulated European

colonization and trade in Africa. One of

the defining moments of African history

for a number of reasons, the most

important being that it changed (for the

worse) political boundaries of Africa.

BOUNDARY

DISPUTES

Description Example

Definitional/

positional

boundary disputes are fights over the language of the

border agreement in a treaty or boundary contract

US, Canada

Locational/

territorial

boundary disputes occur when the conflicting parties

agree on the definition but not on where the boundary

exists on the Earth of the map (The interpretation is in

dispute)

Lakes in Africa

Operational/

functional

boundary disputes are conflicts over the way a

boundary should operate or function

US-Mexico

Allocational boundary disputes are fights over natural resources that

may not be divided by the border

mineral deposits, fertile

farmland, fishing groups,

natural gas or oil reserves

Land and maritime boundaries and international agreements can influence

national or regional identity and encourage or discourage international or

internal interactions and disputes over resources.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the rights and

responsibilities of nations in the use of international waters, established

territorial seas, and exclusive economic zones.

! Law of the Sea = set of UN laws establishing states’ rights and responsibilities

concerning the ownership and use of the Earth’s waters and their resources.

! Exclusive economic zone = A sea zone over which a state has special rights over the

exploration and use of marine resources stretching 200 nautical miles from the coast.

! Median-line principle = A line that is drawn in the water equidistant from each competing

party to settle a question of sea resource access (when there’s an EEZ conflict)

INTERNAL BOUNDARIES: Voting districts, redistricting, and gerrymandering

affect election results at various scales.

! Redistricting is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries in the United States.

! Gerrymandering: drawing political boundaries to give your party a numeric advantage

over an opposing party

o Can strengthen/weaken a particular party – partisan politics.

o Lack of social cohesion, sense of community – can be greater tension

o Can divide areas of voters with similar characteristics

o Can discourage some voters

Forms of governance include unitary states and federal states.

Unitary states tend to have a more top-down centralized form of

government, while federal states have more locally based, dispersed power

centers.

! Unitary states: Places most power in the hands of one central government who make

decisions for entire state. Centralized government

! Federal states: Allocates strong power to units of local government within the country

o Local governments have authority to adopt their own laws

o Boundaries can be drawn to correspond with regions inhabited by different

ethnicities

o Empowers different nationalities, especially if the live in separate regions

Confederal states: A system consisting of a league of independent states, each having

essentially sovereign powers.

UNITARY STATES FEDERAL STATES

nation-states with few internal cultural

differences (homogenous)

Smaller, compact sizes

Works

best in:

Larger states – capital may be too remote

to provide effective control over isolated

regions. Heterogeneous states (multiple

ethnicities, languages, religions)

- Standardization of laws and their

implementation across the country

- Patriotism or pride in one’s country is

bolstered due to uniformity

- Efficiencies are achieved through

less duplication OR faster

countrywide implementation of laws

or governmental services across

multiple scales

- Fewer government or taxation

agencies, or fewer scales of

government or taxation

- The potential for corruption of local

government reduced

- Creation of a national identity that

reduces the potential for

devolutionary processes

+ - Multiple nationalities, ethnicities, or

cultures " diverse states devolve

power in order to reduce separatist

tendencies or to enhance loyalty to the

country

- To address devolutionary forces

arising from physical, economic, or

political differences " federal

governments are able to maintain

national cohesion by bridging physical

or cultural barriers or providing means

for resolving conflicts between

subnational areas

- Larger countries, or territorial control

over large or fragmented area " allow

units to provide more effective

governmental services to address local

issues.

- As distance from national capital

increases, people tend to feel better

served by decision-makers who are

closer to home

Especially common in Europe – UK,

Norway, Finland

Japan, China

EX United States, Russia, Canada, Brazil,

India

Factors that can lead to the devolution of states include the division of

groups by physical geography, ethnic separatism, ethnic cleansing,

terrorism, economic and social problems, and irredentism.

! Devolution = Process of transferring some power from the central government to regional

governments. Transfer of power that occurs when a state breaks up, when regions that

were once unified in one, central government gain power, and sometimes, independence.

! Ethnic separatism: advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial,

governmental or gender separation from the larger group. Largely due to cultural or

linguistic differences

! Ethnic cleansing: he mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or

religious group in a society.

! Terrorism: the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in

the pursuit of political aims.

! Irredentism: any political or popular movement that seeks to claim or reclaim and occupy

a land that the movement's members consider to be a "lost" territory from their nation's

past.

Devolution occurs when states fragment into

autonomous regions; subnational political-territorial

units, such as those within Spain, Belgium, Canada

and Nigeria; or when states disintegrate, as

happened in Eritrea, South Sudan, East Timor, and

states that were part of the former Soviet Union.

Examples: breakup of a state

- Former USSR

- Yugoslavia/Balkans

- Czechoslovakia

- Austria-Hungary

- Ethiopia-Eritrea

- British India

Examples: demand for regional autonomy

- United Kingdom

- Catalonia, Spain

- Basques, Spain

- Quebec, Canada

- Corsica, France

- Padania, Italy

- Tyrol, Italy

- Crimea, Ukraine

Advances in communication technology have facilitated devolution,

supranationalism and democratization.

Global efforts to address transnational and environmental challenges and to

create economies of scale, trade agreements, and military alliances help to

further supranationalism.

Supranational organizations – including the United Nations (UN), North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), European Union (EU), Association of

Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Arctic Council, and African Union – can

challenge state sovereignty by limiting economic or political actions of

member states.

! Supranationalism: the process of nation states organizing politically and economically

into one organization or alliance

! Benefits/advantages:

o Larger market, more trade – free trade

o Greater international influence

o economic and political power

o open borders for labor/workers and tourists

o common currency

o common policy

o war is less likely

! Drawbacks/disadvantages:

o loss of identity

o loss of control over individual policy

o give up some sovereign control

Centripetal and centrifugal forces may lead to failed states, uneven

development, stateless nations, and ethnic nationalist movements.

Centripetal forces can lead to ethnonationalism, more equitable

infrastructure development, and increased cultural cohesion.