unit 5: political geography: power and territory · • frank zappa. 3 shape of countries matters...
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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
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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
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Shape of countries mattersContext:• Enclave• Exclave• Pene-enclave
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India/BangladeshChitmahals(enclaves)
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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?
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Sweden-Norway border
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Territorial Evolution
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Separation Wall
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Colonial Territories, 1956
Ethnic (National) versus State Boundaries(and see textbook fig. 9.7)
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Fig. 9.11 European Ethnic Regions
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• 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”
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Boundaries:• Marchlands / Buffer States• Natural Boundaries• Ethnographic Boundaries• Geometric Boundaries• Relic Boundaries• Globalization and Boundaries?
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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
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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
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From Norton 8th ed.
Fig. 9.8 The Former Yugoslavia
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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)
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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
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• 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.
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Fig. 9.15 Global Distribution of Freedom, 2014
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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
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Obamaland vs. Jesusland, 2008
By county
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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
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Arizona
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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’
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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
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Fig. 9.5 Mackinder’s heartland theory
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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’?