Development of the State Concept

2. Development of the State Concept Evolution of States: • City-states • First concept of a “state” (Athens, Sparta) • Sovereign states that are comprised of towns and their surrounding countryside. • Today: Singapore, Monaco, Vatican City 2. Medieval States • Military dominance of individual city-states led to the formation of empires • Roman Empire’s collapse in 5th century led to its land being parceled up and controlled by various monarchies.

3. Where Are States Distributed? 3. Nation-States • A nation-state is a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity. • The concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves is known as self-determination. • By early 1900s, most of Western Europe was made of nation-states • After WWI, leaders of the victorious countries met to redraw the map of Europe. • Language was most important criterion the Allied leaders used to create new European states and to adjust existing boundaries.

4. Nation-states in Europe In 1800, much of Europe was organized into empires. After World War I, much of Europe was organized into nation-states.

5. KEY ISSUE 3:WHY DO BOUNDARIES CAUSE PROBLEMS?

6. The Law of the Sea - 1982 • Under the treaty, a coastal state has: • Exclusive fishing rights and sovereignty over a territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles from its coast • Limited jurisdiction over a territorial sea up to 24 nautical miles from its coast (right to enforce laws of immigration, sanitation, etc.) • An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles for natural resource exploration and exploitation • Beyond the EEZ’s of coastal states, the seas are open for free use by all states • EEZ’s overlap in many areas and cause conflict and tension

7. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? A state is separated from its neighbors by a boundary • An invisible line that marks the extent of a state’s territory • An infinitely thin line Historically, frontiers separated states • A frontier is a zone where no state exercises complete political control • A tangible geographic area • Uninhabited or sparsely populated • Frontiers have been replaced by boundaries

8. Physical Boundaries • Desert Boundary • Hard to cross and sparsely inhabited (can be diagonal) • MountainBoundary • Effectively divides two states, if the mountains are difficult to cross. • Useful boundaries because of their permanent quality and tendency to be sparsely populated. • Water Boundary • Less permanent overall than mountain boundaries because of tendencies of water levels to change in bodies of water and river channels to move over time.

9. The Andes Mountains separate Argentina and Chile

10. The boundary between Malawi (foreground) and Mozambique (background) runs through Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi).

11. Cultural Boundaries • Geometric Boundaries • Straight lines drawn on a map. • Ethnic Boundaries • Boundary coincides with differences in ethnicity, especially language and religion. • Language differences influenced the demarcation of boundaries in England, France, Portugal, and Spain before the 19th century in Europe. • British India was partitioned into predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan and Bangladesh • Ireland is predominantly Catholic and Northern Ireland is mostly Protestant

12. Types of Cultural Boundaries • Antecedent – created before an area is populated (U.S. and Canada) • Subsequent – follows cultural landscape (Sudan and South Sudan) • Superimposed – drawn by outsiders without regard for local ethnic groups (African countries; North and South Korea) • Relict – no longer exists but can still see effects of it (North and South Vietnam; Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China)

13. Left - the Demilitarized Zone between NorthKorea & South Korea is heavily defended by both sides Bottom left – the US-Canadian border is the longest undefended border in the world. Bottom right - the Rio Grande forms the border between Mexico and the United States which is porous enough to allow millions of illegal immigrants.

14. Types of Boundary Disputes • Positional (definitional) – states argue about where border actually is (Argentina and Chile – Andes Mountains) • Territorial (locational)– states argue over the ownership of a region, usually around mutual borders (German invasion of Poland and Czechoslovakia) • Resource (allocational) – Involve natural resources that lie in border areas (Iraq and Kuwait; Saudi Arabia and Yemen) • Functional (operational) – neighboring states cannot agree on policies that apply to a border area (U.S. and Mexico)

15. The Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, but Germany is still divided

16. Forces that Divide Centrifugal forces - destabilize the government and encourage the country to fall apart • Political forces - majority/minority relationships, armed conflicts • Economic forces – uneven development • Cultural forces - stateless nations, ethnic movements, conflicting religious or language groups

17. Devolution of States One reaction to centrifugal forces is devolution – transfer of power from national government to state or local governments • This isn’t necessarily a bad thing • Britain has devolved power to Scotland and Wales in an effort to keep peace with them • The natives in northern Canada formed the territory of Nunavut

18. Devolution of States Forces that may lead to devolution of states include: • Ethnic separatism – ethnic group feeling like it doesn’t fit with rest of state • Terrorism – extremist groups taking control of a region • Economic and social problems • Irredentism - the belief that a territory belonging to another country should be annexed for ethnic or historical reasons (example – Hitler trying to unite all Germans)

19. Balkanization • Devolution can go as far as Balkanization – the breakup of a country into smaller countries (South Sudan, Yugoslavia, the Caucasus countries) • This shows the tendency for mountain ranges to form “shatter belts” - zones containing many small cultural groups who find refuge in the rugged terrain of mountains

20. Forces that Unite Centripetal forces – bind together people of a state and give it strength • Political forces – national identity, federal holidays, patriotism • Economic forces –infrastructure development • Cultural forces – linguistic, religious, ethnic similarities, sports

21. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? Shapes of States • Controls the length of its boundaries with other states. • Affects the potential for communication and conflict with neighbors. • Shape is part of a country’s unique identity. • Shape also influences the ease or difficulty of internal administration and can affect social unity.

22. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? Countries have one of five basic shapes • Compact States • Distance from center of state to any boundary does not vary significantly. • Example: Poland • Ideal theoretical example would be circle-shaped with the capital in the center. • Elongated States • Long and narrow shape. • May suffer from poor internal communications. • Example: Chile • 2,500 miles long north and south • Rarely exceeds 90 miles wide east and west.

23. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? • Prorupted States • Otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension. • Proruptions created for two principal reasons. • Provide a state with access to a resource, such as water. • Separate two states that other would share a boundary. • Perforated States • A state that completely surrounds another one. • Encompassed state is dependent on the surrounding state for interactions beyond its boundary.

24. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? • Fragmented States • A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory. • Two kinds of fragmented states • Fragmented states separated by water • Fragmented states separated by an intervening state.

25. Or Prorupted

27. Exclave- an outlier of a state that is physically detached from the state • Ex: Alaska, Kaliningrad (Russia) • Islands are NOT exclaves! • Enclave- lies within a country and is independent or ruled by another country. • Ex: Vatican City and San Marino in Italy, Lesotho in South Africa

28. Landlocked Countries • Landlocked states have a serious disadvantage in trade and access to resources. • Africa has more landlocked states than any other continent. • Asia - Mongolia & Nepal are landlocked with rough terrain, great distances and limited communication, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia & Georgia. • South America - Bolivia and Paraguay • Europe - Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Belarus and Bosnia

29. Landlocked States

30. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? Types of national governments: • A democracy is a country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office. • An autocracy is a country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people. • An anocracy is a country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic, but rather a mix of the two.

31. Anocracy • Anocracy is a term used to describe a regime type that is characterized by inherent qualities of political instability and ineffectiveness, as well as an "incoherent mix of democratic and autocratic traits and practices."  • These regime types are particularly susceptible to outbreaks of armed conflict and unexpected or adverse changes in leadership. • Questionable elections are a characteristic of anocracies

32. Anocracies Today • In Asia: • Cambodia (unstable gov with abrupt changes in leadership) • Thailand (constant political upheaval since 1993) • Burma (adverse armed conflict, changes in leadership) • In Africa: • Nigeria (open anocracy, closer to democracy) • Zimbabwe (electoral conflicts and human rights violations) • Uganda (transitioned from autocracy to closed anocracy) • Somalia (open anocracy since 2013)

33. In Europe: • Russia (open anocracy – democratic elections but ones that are not very free) • Ukraine (questionable elections) • Countries with successful transitions from anocracy to democracy: • Mexico • Taiwan • Ghana

35. Democracies and autocracies differ in three essential elements: • Selection of Leaders • Democracies – citizens can elect leaders • Autocracies - leaders are selected according to clearly defined (usually hereditary) rules of succession from within the political elite

36. Why Do Boundaries Cause Problems? 2. Citizen Participation • Democracies – citizens may participate at all levels of government • Autocracies - citizens’ participation restricted or suppressed 3. Checks and Balances • Democracies – have systems to check power of all branches of government • Autocracies - leaders exercise power with no meaningful checks from legislative, judicial, or civil society institutions

37. In general, the world has become more democratic since the turn of the 19th century (democratization)

38. Democratization Three waves of democratization: • First wave – developed gradually • Second wave – after Allied victory in WWII; characterized by de-colonization around the globe • Third wave – Defeat of dictatorial or totalitarian rulers from South America to Eastern Europe to some parts of Africa • One of the greatest obstacles to democratization is poverty because it blocks citizen participation in government

39. Why has democratization occurred? • Loss of legitimacy of right and left wing authoritarian regimes • Expansion of urban middle class • New emphasis on “human rights” in US and EU • Snowball effect – when one country in a region becomes democratic, it influences others to do so

40. Organization of Governments 1. Unitary statesplace most power in the hands of the federal government • Work best in states with few internal cultural divisions and a strong sense of national unity • Requires strong communication • Smaller states are more likely to be unitary • Some multinational states have become unitary in order to impose values of one nationality on others • Examples: France, Kenya, Rwanda, China, many European countries

41. 2. Federal statesallocate strong political power to units of local government within the country • Empowers many nationalities in a multinational state, especially if they live in separate regions • More suitable for large countries because the national capital may be too far away to be effective • Examples: United States, Canada, Russia, Brazil, India, tiny Belgium (two main cultural groups)