Electoral Geography: Influence on Representation and Boundaries

1. Electoral Geography • a key component of the states internal political geography. • Includes - study of voting behavior • Political geographers study church affiliation, income level, ethnic background, education, and numerous other social and economic factors. • Democracy • most direct control and contact with the government is at the local level. • US Constitution territorial representation in the House • representative - elected from a territorially defined district. • Census taken every 10 years - reapportionment,

2. Electoral Geography • States use their own methods and criteria to redistrict themselves, most important of which is equal population within districts. • The courts have called for representational equality of racial and linguistic minorities. • Minority voters - diluted by splitting them amongst many districts ensuring that the majority population retains control of each district. • Courts have made decisions they require states to redistrict in a way that would maximize minority representation. • The results since 1990s census - states have increased the number of majority-minority districts in the House of Representatives from 27 to 52. • Majority-minority districts are packed districts in which a majority of the population is from the minority. • In order to achieve - drawn misshaped voting districts in order to connect minority populations , join many urban areas

3. Electoral Geography • 1812 - Gov. Aldridge Gerry of Massachusetts • gerrymandering • The US electoral map reflects • Conversely - concentrates minority votes creating countrywide government that is less responsive • Spatial organization of voting districts has a profound impact on who is represented and who is not. • regionalism and can shape the governments response to issues in the future.

4. How are boundaries established and why do boundary disputes occur? • Boundary-a vertical plane that cuts to the rocks below and airspace above dividing one state territory from another. • Many boundaries were established on world maps before the extent or significance of resources below the surface one. • Europe: Cole-underneath Belgium, Netherlands, and the Rhur area of Germany. • Germans complained Dutch withdrawing natural gas • Wanted compensation • Iraq and Kuwait

5. How are boundaries established and why do boundary disputes occur? • Iraqi’s complain that Kuwait is drilling too many wells draining the reserve too quickly. • Airspace • Establishing boundaries - between states it typically takes four steps. • First - states defined the boundary – treaty: legal document establishes point of latitude and longitude. • Second - cartographers delimit - map. • Third - demarcate the boundary with steel posts, concrete pillars, fences, walls, or other visible means. • Final step - administrate the boundary - maintained and how goods and people will cross it.

6. How are boundaries established and why do boundary disputes occur? • Boundary disputes – boundaries – old and imprecise, like rivers, actually change course. • Resources - can also lead to conflict. • There are four types of boundary disputes: • one - definitional boundary disputes-based on the legal language. Example: median line of a river, - Solution is to refine the definition to both parties. • Two - locational boundary disputes: center on the demarcation of the boundary. interpretation is disputed

7. How are boundaries established and why do boundary disputes occur? • Three - operational boundary disputes: • Smuggling goods across borders and people can sometimes lead to operational disputes. • Four - locational boundary disputes: becoming more common, disagreements over natural resources, typically - subsoil. • Also involve international boundaries at sea. • Water supplies

8. How do geopolitics and critical geopolitics help us understand the world? • Geopolitics is the interplay among geography, power, politics, and international relations. • Two schools of classical geo-politicians: the German school, the British and American school. • The German School • German professor Frederick Ratzel: influenced by Darwin, state resembles a biological organism whose lifecycle extends from birth through maturity and ultimately declined and death. • nourishment - acquisition of territories. • static boundaries = atrophy • Territory is essential • This type of philosophy lead to Nazi expansionism. • Lebensraum

9. How do geopolitics and critical geopolitics help us understand the world? • The British American school: offer strategic advice for states and explain why countries interact on a global scale the way that they do. • Founder - Halford J Mackinder of Oxford University. • concerned with power relationships, Britain had acquired a global empire. • his contemporaries: the oceans the key to world domination - disagreed. • land-based power – world domination. • Eurasia : resource-rich "pivot area" . • great empire - anyone who controlled this region. • renames this area the heartland, becomes known as the heartland theory. • post WWI he writes a book issuing a warning to the winners: • rule East Europe, command the heartland • rule the heartland, commands the world island • rule the world island, command the world.

10. How do geopolitics and critical geopolitics help us understand the world? • When he proposed his heartland theory - Russia was in disarray, facing revolution and Germany was gaining power. • Soviet Union emerges - theory begins to attract attention. • As Stalin grows in power - 1940s the theory offers strategies to keep the Soviets in check. • encourages an alliance around the North Atlantic - land and sea power against the heartland. • influenced the US - containment policy during the Cold War. • NATO. • Influence of Geopoliticians on politics - NATO still exists - not invited Russia to join this alliance. • has extended membership to Eastern European & former republics.

11. What are supernational organizations, and what is the future of the state? • Supernational Organization is composed of three or more states, administrative association - structure for mutual benefit : pursuit of shared goals. • political, economic, cultural, and military. • There are between 60 and 100 • Ex: NATO, NAFTA, European Union. • Woodrow Wilson proposed - League of Nations. • United States refused to join. • weekend the league - collapsed @ beginning of the WWII • lead to the creation of other supernational organizations - Court of International Justice - adjudicate legal issues between states • After World War II - United Nations

12. What are supernational organizations, and what is the future of the state? • currently 192 member states in the United Nations. • Within the UN - UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. • WHO world health organization • the FAO the food and agriculture organization - work to benefit humanity. • UN - peacekeeping troops • Participation in the United Nations requires states to commit to internationally approve standards of behavior. (apparently not the United States, unilateralism) • regional supranational organizations - our regional scale supernational organizations attempt to position states more strongly economically, politically, militaristically. • Example-the Benelux countries. • European Union - elimination of certain tariffs between nations, free or flow of labor, capital, and non-steel commodities.

13. What are supernational organizations, and what is the future of the state? • 1980s 12 members including the three European giants of Germany France and United Kingdom. • 1992 the EU is formally established, 90s :single currency the euro. • Integration - difficult process. • Diversity - challenge to integrate. • concerns - loss of traditional state powers. • Different ethnic traditions and histories of conflict and competition also make it a challenge. • The 2000 & 2008 global recessions have led to major increases in unemployment and an increase in nationalism.

14. What are supernational organizations, and what is the future of the state? • Another issue is Turkey. • Turks - strong interest in joining the EU - Greeks are hesitant, dispute over Cyprus. • Turkeys human rights record against the Kurds. • Turkey isn't European enough • Concerns have alienated the Turkish people, many no longer want to join the EU.

15. How does supernationalism effect the state? • EU : it's not a state, nor is it simply an organization of states. • unlike any other supranational organization. • multifaceted government, three Capital Cities, billions of euros flowing into its treasury. • The EU is extending, domestic policies, and military policies, sovereignty moving from states to the EU. • States where people have been disempowered by their state government feel a strong connection to the European Union. • challenges to the state as we know it are being caused by the European Union. • As economic globalization expands it makes it even more difficult for states to control economic relationships.

16. How does supernationalism effect the state? • Some states - giving up traditional regulatory powers as a result and others seek to insulate themselves from the international economy. • Others - working to build supranational economic blocks - hope will help them cope with globalization. • Increase mobility - individuals from far places into closer contact than before. • Popular culture - made national borders virtually meaningless. • Religion is influencing global affairs - states attempt to defeat extremism often produces support for state governments in the short-term, but inability to defeat extremist attacks may weaken states in the long term. (Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan) • Some speculate - new bipolar international system will emerge based on recent events put in the Islamic world against the Judeo-Christian world. • Many question these ideas - failure to recognize the diversity within Islam and the Judeo-Christian – promotes stereotypes. • Globalization - produced economic, social, and cultural geographies that look less and less like the map of states.