Political Geography

Political Geography

The study of the organization and distribution of political phenomena, including their impact on other spatial components of society and culture.

Studied at two geographical and political scales

Nationality and states at national and international scale
Voting patterns, constituency boundaries, and districting rules, political fragmentation at local scale

Interweaving political, social, and economical factors complicate territorial issues.

National political systems

State - an independent political unit occupying a defined, permanently populated territory and having full sovereignty.

Nation - a population with a common culture occupying a territory, bound together by a strong sense of unity.

Nation-state - a state whose territorial extent coincides with that occupied by a distinct nation or people

Multinational state - a state having more than one nation

Part-nation state - a nation extending beyond state border

Stateless nation - a nation without a county

Geographic characteristics

Size - large, medium, and small

Shape - elongated, compact, prorupt, fragmented, perforated

Location - absolute (latitude-wise), relative (landlocked, sea-borne)

Cores and capitals

Unitary states - highly centralized governments, few internal cultural contrasts, a strong sense of national identity, by definition nation-states.

Federal states - associations of equal provinces or states with strong regional governmental responsibilities, newly created capital cities.

State boundaries

International boundaries

3D limits of each state’s jurisdiction and authority.
powerful reinforcers of cultural variation in the world

Boundary types

natural, geometric, antecedent, subsequent (consequent, superimposed), relict.

Boundary disputes

positional, territorial, resource, functional

State cohesiveness

Centripetal forces - promote unity and national stability.

nationalism - id with the state and the acceptance of national goals

unifying institutions - schools, armed forces, a state church

organization/administration - continuity, impartiality, efficiency

transportation/communication - network, ties all parts together

Centrifugal forces - disrupt unity and national stability.

autonomous nationalism - dissident minority that has secession from the state as its primary goal.

regionalism - minority group self-awareness and id with a region

devolution - a central government allows a degree of political autonomy to be recognized political sub-units.
common characteristics of separatist movements:

territory, nationality, peripheral location, socioeconomic inequality.

Geopolitical theories

Geopolitics - one State’s power to control space and shape the foreign policy of individual states and international relations

Organic state theory (Ratzel)

an organism conforming to natural laws for survival

Heartland theory (Mackinder)

strategic advantages of land over sea powers

Rimland theory (Spykman)

strategic value of continental margins of Eurasia

Domino theory (the Cold War)

adjacent countries line up as dominos, chain reaction.

International political systems

The United Nations

The World Health Organization (WHO)
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

The UN convention on the Law of the Sea

A territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles
A contiguous zone to 24 nautical miles
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) up to 200 nautical miles
The high seas beyond the EZZ

Local and regional politics

Electoral geography

the analysis of how boundaries are drawn around voting districts and the relationships between the spatial patterns yielded by election results and the socioeconomic characteristics of voters.

Gerrymandering

the practice of drawing the boundaries of voting districts to unfairly favor one political party over another, to fragment voting blocs, or to achieve other non-democratic objectives. (strategies include stacked gerrymandering, excess vote, and waste vote)