Political Organization of Space

1. Political Organization of Space Political Geography: the study of the political organization of the world.

2. State* A politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government. To be a state, an entity must be recognized by such by other states.

3. 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. Ex: Aruba (Netherlands), Falkland Islands (UK), Gibraltar (UK). • Sovereignty – Having the last say over a territory – legally. • Territorial Integrity – A government has the right to keep the borders and territory of a state intact/free from attack.

4. Nations* • Nation – A culturally defined group of people with a shared past and a common future that relate to a territory and have political goals. • People construct nations to make sense of themselves. • Nations are “imagined communities” • imagined = you will never meet all the people in your nation • community = you see yourself as part of it

5. The nations we perceive as “natural” and “always existing” are relatively a recent phenomena. In 1648, Europe was divided into dozens of small territories.

6. Nation-State* • Nation-State – A politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space.

7. Multinational State:*a state with more than one nation. “One can be a Scot and a Brit in the United Kingdom, a Jew and an American in the United States, an Ibo and a Nigerian in Nigeria... One might find it hard to be a Slovak and a Hungarian, an Arab and an Israeli, a Breton and a Frenchman.” EX: Former Yugoslavia. Confusing? OK, let’s see…

8. Multinational state & nation-state A multinational state is a sovereign state which is viewed as having two or more nations. Such a state contrasts with a nation-state where a single nation comprises the bulk of the population. The UK and the Russian Federation are present-day examples of a multinational states. The USSR and Yugoslavia are examples of multinational states which existed in the past but have since split into a number of sovereign states.

9. Multistate Nation:*a nation with more than one state. Transylvania – homeland for both Romanians and Hungarians.

10. Stateless Nation:* a nation without a state. Ex: the Kurds who have no country of their own but are split up between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. In Europe the Basques & Catalans in France/Spain.

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. Two Waves of Decolonization First wave – focused on decolonization of the Americas Second wave – focused on decolonization of Africa and Asia

13. Wallerstein’s World-Systems Theory: (1930- ) American sociologist • 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 (next slide).

14. Three Tier Structure 1. Core Processes that incorporate higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology * Generate more wealth in the world economy 2. Periphery Processes that incorporate lower levels of education, lower salaries, and less technology * Generate less wealth in the world economy 3. 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

15. Forms of Government • Unitary – highly centralized government where the capital city serves as a the center of power. • Federal – a government where the state is organized into territories, which have control over government policies and funds.

16. Electoral Geography • A state’s electoral system is part of its spatial organization of government. In the United States: - territorial representation - reapportionment - voting rights for minority populations

17. Gerrymandering: dividing (a state, county, etc.) into voting districts to give one group or area an unequal advantage Majority-Minority districts drawn so that the majority of the population in the district is from the minority.

18. Boundary – a vertical (?) plane that cuts through the rocks below and the airspace above, dividing one state territory from another.

19. Types of Boundaries • Geometric boundaries – based on grid systems • eg. Boundary between the US and Canada • Physical-political boundaries – follow an agreed-upon feature in the physical geographic landscape. • eg. Boundary between the US and Mexico

20. Geopolitics • Geopolitics – the interplay among geography, power, politics, and international relations.

21. Classical Geopolitics British/American School e.g.. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory German School e.g.. Ratzel’s organic state theory

22. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory: “Who rules East Europe commands the HeartlandWho rules the Heartland commands the World Island Who rules the World Island commands the world”

23. Ratzel’s organic state theory • Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). German geographer. First used the term Lebensraum ("living space") in the sense that the National Socialists later would.

24. Supranational Organizations 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. Examples: UN, EU, OAS