Ap Human Geography De Blij Chap. 8

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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 a 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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Territory

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Any separate tract of land belonging to a state.

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Territoriality

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In political geography, a country's or more local community's sense of property and 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 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 sovereign territory against incursion from other states.

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Mercantilism

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In a general sense, associated with the promotion of commercialism and trade. More specifically, a protectionist policy of European states during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries that promoted a state's economic position in the contest with other countries. The acquisition of gold and silver and the maintenance of a favorable trade balance (more exports than imports) were central to the policy.

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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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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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Theoretically, a recognized member of a modern state system possessing formal sovereignty and occupied by a group of 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 common 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 sovereign 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 power over a subordinate and alien people and place. Although often established and maintained through political structures, colonialism also creates unequal cultural and economic relations. Because of the magnitude and impact of the European colonial project of the last few centuries, the term is generally understood to refer to that particular colonial endevour.

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Scale

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Representations of a real-world phenomena at a certain level of reduction or generalization. In cartography, the ratio of map distance to ground distance; indicated on a map as a bar graph, representative fraction, and/or verbal statement.

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World-Systems Theory

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Theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein and illuminated by his three-tier structure, proposing that social change in the developing world is inextricably linked to the economic activities of the developed world.

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Capitalism

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Economic model wherein people, corporations, and states produce goods and exchange them on the world market, with the goal of acheiving profit.

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Commodification

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The process through which something is given monetary value. Commodification 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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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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Processes that incorporate lower levels of education, lower education, and less technology; and generate less wealth than core processes in the world-economy.

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Semiperiphery

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Places where core and periphery processes are both occuring; places that are exploited by the core but in turn exploit the 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 acheive 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 ideological 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, linguistic, ethnic, or ideological differences.

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Unitary (State)

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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 (State)

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A political-territorial system wherein a central government represents the various entities within a nation-state where they have common interests - defense, foreign affairs and the like - yet allows these various entities to retain their own identities and to have their own laws, policies, and customs in certain spheres.

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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 from a territorially defined 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 approximatly the same number of people.

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Splitting

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In the process of determining representative districts, the process by which the majority and minority populations are spread equally 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 process of determining representative districts, the process 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 process 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 districts as possible

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Boundary

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Vertical plane between states that cuts through the rocks below, and the airspace above the surface.

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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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a border that is either constructed or naturally occurring on a geographic territory. This type of border is used to distinguish between areas of governance or types of political control. They function both as a tool for managing a group of people and as a way of minimizing conflict and organizing efficient political units.

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Heartland Theory

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The heartland theory proposes that a land-based power, not a sea power, would ultimately rule the world. At the heart or Eurasia, lay an impregnable, resource-rich "pivot area;" and if this pivot area became influential in Europe, a great empire could be formed. So (1) who rules East Europe commands the Heartland, (2) who rules the Heartland commands the World Island, and (3) who rules the World Island commands the World.

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Critical Geopolitics

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intellectuals of statecraft construct ideas about places, these ideas have influence and reinforce their political behaviors and policy choices, and these ideas affect how we, the people, process our own notions of places and politics.

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Unilateralism

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A tendency of nations to conduct their foreign affairs individualistically, characterized by minimal consultation and involvement with other nations, even their allies.

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Supranational Organization

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a type of multi-national confederation or federation where negotiated power is delegated to an authority by governments of member states. The concept of supranational union is sometimes used to describe the European Union, as a new type of political entity.

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Deterritorialization

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The severance of social, political, or cultural practices from their native places and populations.

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Reterritorialization

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The restructuring of a place or territory that has experienced deterritorialization.