Chapter 8 Political Vocab

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political geography

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A subdivision of human geography focused on the nature and implications of the evolving spatial organization of political governance and formal political practice on the Earth's surface. It is concerned with why political spaces emerge in the places that they do and with how the character of those spaces affects social, political, economic, and environmental understandings and practices.

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state

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A politically organized territory that is administered by sovereign government and is recognized by a significant portion of the international community. A state has a defined territory, a permanent population, a government, and is recognized by other states.

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territoriality

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In political geography, a country's or more local community's sense of propertyand attachment toward its territory, as expressed by its determination to keep it inviolable and strongly defended

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sovereignty

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a principle of international relations that holds that final authority over social, economic, and political matters should rest with the legitimate rulers of independent states.

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territorial integrity

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the right of a state to defend soverign territory against incurrsion from other states

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peace of westphalia

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Peace negotiated in 1648 to end the Thirty Years' War, Europe's most destructive internal struggle over religion. The treaties contained new language recognizing statehood and nationhood, clearly defined borders, and guarantees of security

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mercantilism

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in a general sense, associated with the promothion of commercialism and trade.

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nation

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Legally, a term encompassing all the citizens of a state. Most definitions now tend to refer to a tightly knit group of people possessing bonds of language, ethnicity, religion, and other shared cultural attributes. Such homogeneity actually prevails within very few states.

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nation-state

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Teoretically, a recognized member of the modern state system possesing formal sovereignty and occupied by a people who see themselves as a single, united nation. Most nations and states aspire to this form, but it is realized almost nowhere. Nonetheless, in commpn parlance, nation-state is used as a synonym for country or state.

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democracy

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government based on the principle that the people are the ultimate soverign and have the final say over what happens within the state.

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multinational state

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state with more than one nation within its borders

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multistate nation

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nation that stretches across borders and across states

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stateless nation

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Nation that does not have a state.

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colonialism

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rule by an autonomous pwoer over a subordinate and alien people and place.

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scale

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representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization. In cartography, the ratio of map distance to ground distance; in fixed on a map as a bar, representative fraction and or verbal statement

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capitalism

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economic model wherein people, corporations, and states produce goods and exchange them in the world market with the goal of achieving profit.

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commodification

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The process through which something is given monetary value; occurs when a good or idea that previously was not regarded as an object to be bought and sold is turned into something that has a particular price and that can be traded in a market economy.

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world systems theory

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refers to the inter-regional and transnational division of labor, which divides the world into core countries, semi-periphery and periphery countries

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core

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processes that incorporate higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology; generate more wealth than periphery processes in the world economy.

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periphery

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process that incorporate lower levels of education, lowe salaries, and less technology; and generate less welth than core proccesses in the world-economy

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semiperiphery

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places where core and periphery processes are both occurring; places that are exloited by the core but in turn exploit in periphery

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ability

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In the context of political power, the capacity of a state to influence other states or achieve its goals through diplomatic, economic, and militaristic means.

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centripetal

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forces that tend to unify a country- such as widespread commitment to a national culture, shared idealogical objectives, and a common faith

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centrifugal

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forces that tend to divide a country- such as internal religious, inguistic, ethnic, or ideologiacal differences.

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unitary

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a nation-state that has a centralized government and administration that exercises power equally over all parts of the state

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federal

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a political territorial system wherein a central government represents the various entitie within a nation-state

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devolution

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the process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government

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territorial representation

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system wherein each representative is elected form a district

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reapportionment

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process by which representative districts are switched according to population shifts, so that each district encompasses approximately the same number of people

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splitting

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In the context of determining representative districts, the process by which the majority and minority populations are spread evenly across each of the districts to be created therein ensuring control by the majority of each of the districts; as opposed to the result of majority-minority districts

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majority-minority districts

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in the context of determaning representative districts, the proccess by which a majority of the population is from the minority

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gerrymandering

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redistricting for advantage, or the practice of dividing areas into electoral districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districst as possible

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boundary

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Invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory.

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heartland theory

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A geopolitical hypothesis, proposed by British geographer Halford Mackinder during the first two decades of the twentieth century, that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain sufficient strength to eventually dominate the world.

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critical geopolitics

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process by which geopoliticians deconstruct and focus on explaining the underlying spatial assumptions and territorial perspectives of politicians

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unilateralism

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World order in which one state is in a position of dominance with allies following rather than joining the political decision-making process

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supernational orginazation

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a venture involving three or more nation-states involving formal political, economic, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives. Ex: European Union.

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deterritorialization

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The movement of economic, social and cultural processes out of the hands of states.

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reterritorialization

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With respect to popular culture, when people within a place start to produce an aspect of popular culture themselves, doing so in the context of their local culture and making it their own.

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territory

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an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state

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geometric boundary

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political boundary defined and delimited and occasionally demarcated as a straight line or an arc

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physical-political boundary

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political boundary defined and delimited (occasionally demarcated) by a prominent physical feature in the natural landscape - such as a river or the crest ridges of a mountain range

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compact state

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a state that possesses a roughly circular, oval or rectangular territory in which the distance from the geometric center is relatively equal in al directions. Example: Poland, Kenya, Uruguay

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prorupted state

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a type of territorial shape that exhibits a narrow, elongated landscape extension leading away from the main body of the territory. Example: Mozambique and Thailand

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elongated state

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state who territory is long and narrow in shape. Example: Norway and Chile

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fragmented state:

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state that s not contagious whole but rather separated parts. Example: Indonesia

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perforated state

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state whose territory completely surrounds that of another state Example: South Africa

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enclave

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a country or part of country that is surrounded by another Example: Vatican City is an enclave of Rome

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exclave

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a part of country that is at almost completely separated from the main part of country, Example: Alaska and Hawaii