Political Geography Outline

Chapter 8
Political Geography Outline

Field Note
The field note explains that Self-Government with danger is better than servitude in tranquility; also, it explains that Ghana wants Africa as a whole to be like that, to be able to have a self-government, no matter how dangerous that may be.
How is space politically organized into states and nations? A)political geography: the study of the political organization of the world 1) political geographers study the manifestations of political processes at various scales B)state: organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government. 1)To be a state, an entity must be recognized as such by other states. 2)Today's world map is a product of endless accommodations and adjustments. C)territory: a system of political units came into being fixed. 1)territoriality:process by which such units come into being 2)But it can also be defined as " 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".

D)Sovereignty: the concept of sovereignty is territorially defined. It means to have the recognized right to control a territory both politically and militarily E)Territoriality integrity: territory controlled by a country(sovereign)
I)The Modern State Idea A)Peace of Westphalia: negotiated in 1648, made up mutually recognized states.
II)Nations
A)Nation: group of people who think of themselves as one based on a sense on shared culture and history. 1)Nations vary from sharing a religion to sharing a history.
III)Nation-State
A)nation-state: politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space. 1)few nation states as most states encompass different nations. B)Democracy: the idea that the people are the ultimate sovereign.
IV)Multistate Nations, Multinational States and Stateless Nations A)Multinational-state: a state with more than one nation inside its borders. 1)The people of Yugoslavia never achieved a strong sense of Yugoslav nationhood. B)multistate nation: when a nation stretches across borders and across states 1)Transylvania is an example of this. C)stateless nation: when a nation does not have a state 1) the palestinian people do not have a state
V)European Colonialism and the diffusion of the Nation-State Model A)colonialism: the imperial power exercising its power over its colonies. 1)For example the English empire in Africa.
VI)Construction of the Capitalist World Economy A)scale: Seeing the whole instead of just the unit.
VII)The Enduring impact of the nation-state idea
When their is problems within a state, the tendency is often to propose new state boundaries.

How do states spatially organize their governments? A)centripetal: forces within the state that unify the people B)centrifugal: forces within a state that divide the people
I)Form of Government A)unitary: government designed to ensure the central government's authority over all parts of the state. 1)the French Government divided the state into more than 90(94), whose representatives came to Paris to express concerns but also to implement government decisions back home. B)federal: organizing state territory into regions, substates, provinces or cantons.
II)Devolution
A)devolution: the movement of power from the central of the government to regional governments.
III)Electoral Geography A)territorial representation: representation per territory by population, 1)US: Each state gets two representatives, and in the house of Representatives, members are defined based on population. B)reapportionment: process by which districts are moved according to population shifts. 1)After the 2010 census, several States in the Rust Belt lost representatives and sun belt states gained representatives. C)splitting: Separating a people to maintain the majority of another population. 1) Hispanics are often separated to maintain the white majority. D)Majority-minority districts: packed districts in which a majority of the population is from the minority. E)Gerrymandering: redistricting for advantage.
How are boundaries established, and why do boundary disputes occur? A)boundary: vertical plane that cuts the subsoil and the airspace above dividing one state from another.
I)Establishing Boundaries States define boundaries like a treaty like legal document.
II)Types of Boundaries A)geometric boundaries: when boundaries are drawn using latitude and longitude. B)physical-political boundaries: boundaries that follow a feature in the natural landscape. 1)The Rio Grande is an important physical-political boundary between the Us and Mexico.
III)Boundary Disputes Because boundaries are the product of legal steps, when a country becomes weaker, its boundary becomes more open.
How does the study of Geopolitics help us understand the world?
I)The British/American School A)heartland theory: "Who rules the East Europe commands the Heartland Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island Who rules world island commands the World"
II)Critical Geopolitics A)critical geopolitics: intellectuals of spacecraft construct ideas about geographical circumstances and places.
III)Geopolitical World Order A)unilateralism: US in a position of Hard-Power dominance and with the allies of the United States following rather than joining the political-decision making process.
What are supranational organizations, and what are their implications for the state? A)Supranational Organization: an entity composed for three or more states that forge an association.

I)From League of Nations to United Nations
The League of Nations is the United Nations predecessor i some way as it was created in 1919 but was destroyed because of WWII.
II)Regional Supranational Organizations
These are the equivalents of the UN at a regional level. For example, an agreement was signed between Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands during WWII, in 1944, that goods and products could be sold in other countries without licenses and quotas.
III)The European Union
The EU was created 15 years after the end of WWII in an attempt to preserve peace in Europe, and was originally created with 6 members.
III)How does Supranationalism affect the state?
This involves economic associations such as the Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), to make it easier for states to trade with each other. A)deterritorialization: used to describe these processes because globalization, networked communities, and the like undermine the state's traditional territorial authority. B)reterritorialization: process through which the state is moving to solidify control over its territory 1)In response to concerns over illegal immigration, some states become heavily fortified.