1
Unit 5: Political Geography: Power and Territory
38:180 Human Geography
Political Geography
• The Geography of Politics:– Political organization of the world– Spatial manifestation of political processes
• State (Country)– Permanent population– Defined territory– Government– Recognized by other states
2
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
• Frank Zappa
3
Shape of countries mattersContext:• Enclave• Exclave• Pene-enclave
4
India/BangladeshChitmahals(enclaves)
5
Enclave #51
• Territoriality– About power and place“Do you have a flag?”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeFcSq7Mxg
• Sovereignty– (now) Territorially defined
• 1648 Peace of Westphalia• Nation
– “Imagined communities”?• Nation-state?
6
Sweden-Norway border
7
8
Territorial Evolution
9
Separation Wall
10
Colonial Territories, 1956
Ethnic (National) versus State Boundaries(and see textbook fig. 9.7)
11
Fig. 9.11 European Ethnic Regions
12
• Multi-national states• Multi-state nations• Stateless nations
– e.g. Jewish Diaspora until 1948• Nationalism
– People (social-cultural-ethnic identity)– State (allegiance to a political entity)– Nation-building (unification of divergent
people)– Transnationalism? Cultural “in-betweenness”
13
14
Boundaries:• Marchlands / Buffer States• Natural Boundaries• Ethnographic Boundaries• Geometric Boundaries• Relic Boundaries• Globalization and Boundaries?
15
16
17
18
Country-building as a diffusion process:• Expansion from a core via contagious
diffusion• Political state as a functional region• Core-periphery structure is politically
rooted
19
Spatial-Political Tensions
• Separatist / Secessionist Movements– e.g. ethnic homelands, ethnic nationalism– can result in suppression, or creation of new
state– mostly exist at periphery of existing state
territories
20
From Norton 8th ed.
Fig. 9.8 The Former Yugoslavia
21
Spatial-Political Tensions
• Separatist / Secessionist Movements– e.g. ethnic homelands, ethnic nationalism– can result in suppression, or creation of new
state– mostly exist at periphery of existing state
territories– Case: Sakha Republic of Russia (aka Yakutia)
22
23
Spatial-Political Tensions
• Separatist / Secessionist Movements– e.g. ethnic homelands, ethnic nationalism– can result in suppression, or creation of new
state– mostly exist at periphery of existing state
territories– Case: Sakha Republic of Russia (aka Yakutia)
• Irredentism
Secessionist and Irredentist claims in former Soviet Union
24
• Centripetal forces (e.g. nationalism?)• Centrifugal forces (e.g. nationalism?)Organization of Power within the State:• unitary• federal• “compound unitary, type I & II”• devolution
– experimental or permanent– ethnocultural, economic, or spatial in origin
From Norton 8th ed.
25
Fig. 9.15 Global Distribution of Freedom, 2014
26
Electoral Geography
• Patterns of voting as expression of culture– free vote provides “one of the purest
expressions of culture”• Basis for identifying formal cultural regions
– ethnicity, race, religion, education, income, ideology, etc.
Canada’s 2006 & 2008 elections
27
Obamaland vs. Jesusland, 2008
By county
28
By county, showing % distribution
Electoral Geography
• Patterns of voting as expression of culture– free vote provides “one of the purest
expressions of culture”• Basis for identifying formal cultural regions
– ethnicity, race, religion, education, income, ideology, etc.
• (Regional) Cleavages• Redistricting / Reapportionment (U.S.)
– gerrymandering– malapportionment
29
30
Arizona
31
Illinois
Political Ecology and Geopolitics
• The relationship between geography (physical environment) and politics
• Political Ecology – how politics affects the way we use land and resources, and how we respond politically to ecological crises– ‘Chain of Explanation’
32
Political Ecology and Geopolitics
• Geopolitics – role of geography (environment) in political processes– e.g. ‘folk fortress’
• Ratzel and the state as a biological organism– Leibensraum
• Halford Mackinder’s Heartland Theory• ‘Critical Geopolitics’ – extension of
geopolitics to focus on international relations
33
Fig. 9.5 Mackinder’s heartland theory
34
Supranationalism
• Increasing integration of the world, economically and politically, beyond state boundaries
• Supranational organizations: 3 or more states forming an administrative structure for mutual benefit, in pursuit of shared goals
• e.g. NATO, NAFTA, UN, European Union• What is the future of the ‘state’?
