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POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. Chapter 8. How Is Space Politically Organized into States and Nations?. Political geography : The study of the political organization of the world

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POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

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  1. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY Chapter 8

  2. How Is Space Politically Organized into States and Nations? • Political geography: The study of the political organization of the world • 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

  3. Political Organization of Space • Sovereignty: Having the last say over a territory — legally • Territorial integrity: The right of a government to keep the borders and territory of a state intact and free from attack

  4. State A politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government, and recognized as such by other states

  5. The Modern State Idea The idea of a state that is tied to a particular territory with defined boundaries • Came out of Europe • Diffused through • Mercantilism • Colonialism

  6. Nations • Nation: A culturally defined group of people with a shared past and a common future who relate to a territory and have political goals • Constructed by people to make sense of themselves • “Imagined communities” (Benedict Anderson) • Imagined = you will never meet all the people in your nation • Community = you see yourself as part of it • Nations perceived as “natural” and “always existing” but really a relatively recent phenomenon

  7. Nation-State • A politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space • Rare in practice • An ideal for governments as source of political loyalty and unity • Origins in French Revolution • Democracy: People as sovereign • A territorial state for each nation • Nationalism • Strong sense of loyalty to the state on the part of its people • Government that promotes the nation within the state • Promotion of loyalty to the state in multinational states

  8. Europe in 1648

  9. Multinational State A state with more than one nation

  10. Stateless Nation A nation with no state

  11. European Colonialism and the Diffusion of the Nation-State Model Colonialism: A physical action in which one state takes over control of another, taking over the government and ruling the territory as its own Two Waves of European Colonialism: 1500 – 1825 1825 – 1975

  12. Dominant Colonial Influences, 1550–1950 Some places were colonized by more than one power in this time period.

  13. The Capitalist World Economy • Result of colonialism • Construction of a world order based on differences in economic and political power • Immanuel Wallerstein’s World-Systems Theory • The world economy has one market and a global division of labor. • Although the world has multiple states, almost everything takes place within the context of the world economy. • The world economy has a three-tier structure.

  14. Construction of the World Economy • Capitalism: The system whereby people, corporations, and states produce goods and services and exchange them in the world market, with the goal of achieving profit • Commodification: The process of placing a price on a good and then buying, selling, and trading the good • Colonialism: Brought the world into the world economy, setting up an interdependent global economy

  15. Three-Tier Structure Core Processes that incorporate higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology Generate more wealth in the world economy Periphery Processes that incorporate lower levels of education, lower salaries, and less technology Generate less wealth in the world economy Semi-periphery Places where core and periphery processes are both occurring Places that are exploited by the core but then exploit the periphery Serves as a buffer between core and periphery

  16. The Three-Tier System

  17. How Do States Spatially Organize Their Governments? Forms of government • Unitary: Highly centralized government where the capital city serves as a focus of power • Federal: A government where the state is organized into territories, which have control over government policies and funds

  18. Nigeria’s Federal System Allows states within Nigeria to determine whether to have Shari’a laws (legal systems based on traditional Islamic laws)

  19. U.S. Federal System Allows states to determine “moral” laws such as death penalty, access to alcohol, and concealed weapons

  20. Devolution • Movement of power from the central government to regional governments within a state • Causes • Ethnocultural forces • Economic forces • Spatial forces

  21. Ethnocultural Devolutionary Movements in Eastern Europe

  22. Devolution in Europe

  23. Electoral Geography Part of a state’s spatial organization of government In the United States • Territorial representation • Reapportionment • Voting rights for minority populations

  24. Voting Districts • Gerrymandering : Drawing voting districts to benefit one group over another • Majority-minority Districts: Drawn so that the majority of the population in the district is from the minority

  25. How Are Boundaries Established, and Why Do Boundary Disputes Occur? Boundary: A vertical plane that cuts through the rocks below and the airspace above, dividing one state territory from another

  26. Boundaries Boundaries often divide resources, such as oil between Kuwait and Iraq

  27. Boundaries • Establishing boundaries • Define • Delimit • Demarcate • Administrate • Types of boundaries • Geometric boundaries: Based on grid systems • Physical-political boundaries: Follow an agreed-upon feature in the physical geographic landscape

  28. Boundary Disputes • Definitional boundary disputes • Locational boundary disputes • Operational boundary disputes • Allocational boundary disputes

  29. How Do Geopolitics and Critical Geopolitics Help Us Understand the World? • Geopolitics: The interplay among geography, power, politics, and international relations • Classical geopolitics • German School (Ratzel’s organic state theory) • British /American School (Mackinder’s heartland theory)

  30. Ratzel’s Organic State Theory • Based on Darwin’s theories of evolution • Need of a state for territory and overseas connections in order to survive • Described expansion of empires and large states in the 19th century • Eventually contributed to Nazi expansion

  31. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory • Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland • Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island • Who rules the World Island commands the world

  32. Critical Geopolitics Ideas of intellectuals of statecraft about places • Influence and reinforce their political behaviors and policy choices • Affect how ordinary people process notions of places and politics

  33. Us versus Them • Cold War • Evil Empire (Soviet Union) • Shining city on a hill (United States) • Replacement of Soviet Union as “them” by terrorists

  34. Geopolitical World Order Temporary periods of stability in conduct of politics at the global scale • Bi-polar • Multi-polar • Unilateralism

  35. What Are Supranational Organizations, and What Is the Future of the State? Supranational organization: A separate entity composed of three or more states that forge an association and form an administrative structure for mutual benefit in pursuit of shared goals

  36. Global Scale: The United Nations

  37. Regional Scale: The European Union

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