Political Geography
California State University
Northridge

I. Political Culture Regions
• Territoriality – are humans are by nature territorial?
• Politics is an expression of how people’s territoriality plays out spatially. Our territory gives us a sense of who we are….and who “others” are.
• How much like animals are we?
• Othering
• Invented “nationalism”: Invented boundaries
A. Independent Countries
• There are approximately 190 countries in the world.
• Africa has about 50 of them.
• Europe has about 50.
• Many hundreds more possible as nations demand self-determination.
Boundaries
• Compact and round countries have less trouble with unity than oddly shaped countries.
• Enclaves, Peneclaves, Exclaves.
• Prorupt countries
• Archipelagos
• Marchlands (define “march”)
• Buffer States and Satellites
• Natural, Ethnographic, Geometric and Relic
Country Shapes (fig)
Azerbaijan-Armenia (fig)
Relic Boundaries (fig)
Organization of Power
• Unitary governments
– France
• Federal governments
– Switzerland, Canada
• Semiautonomous regions
– Hong Kong
• Which system does the United States employ?
Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces
• -Petal: Things that bind and unify a country
• -Fugal: Things that rend asunder a country

Supranational Political Bodies
• United Nations, NATO, NAFTA, etc.
• European Union, CIS, Arab League
Supranational Organizations
C. Electoral Geography
• Voting Patterns hold up over years
Right and Left in Europe (fig)
Elazar’s Three American Regions
• Traditionalistic
– Laws based on tradition
• Moralistic
– Laws based on moral imperatives
• Individualistic
– Individual rights over group needs
Elazar’s Political Subcultures (fig)
• Figure
Social Conservatives and Libertarians (fig)
Geography of Marital Privacy
• figure
Functional Electoral Regions
• Redistricting
– Every 10 years electoral districts must be redrawn.
• Gerrymandering
– The practice of constructing electoral districts that favor one party/race/religion/etc. over another
Gerrymandering (fig)
II. Political Diffusion
• Most countries develop from a core area that:
– is defensible
– has resources
– Remains powerful economically, etc.
– has population (military will?)
– Examples?
White Russian Core (fig)
Multiple Core countries
• Some countries have more than one core.
• Also develop as federal systems
• Can be generally troublesome for the development of the national political and economic systems.
• Spain, Canada.
Types of States (fig)
Core-less countries?
• Some countries form more or less by default.
• No heartland
• Generally develop as “federations”
Diffusion of Insurgencies and Innovations
• Just the opposite can occur. Countries can implode and the desire to secede or overturn government may also sweep across a country.
• The Intifada
• African Independence
• Latin American insurgencies.
• Women’s Rights
• Recycling
Diffusion of the Intifada (fig)
Diffusion of Independence (fig)
Diffusion of Suffrage (fig)
Diffusion of Recycling Programs (fig)
III. Political Ecology
• The natural conditions of a region may play a large role in the development of a sense of national unity.
A. Folk Fortresses
• Can you think of countries with a cohesive identity and a cohesive shape, or natural terrain?
• Can you think of a country with a particularly bad set of natural features that has caused it to be repeatedly invaded, or suffer other traumas?
Balkanization
• What is balkanization?

• Shatterbelt

• Other than the Balkans, what other part of the world has Balkan like potential?
Manifest Destiny
What is manifest destiny?

Indian Wars
Mexican-American War

Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Hypothesis
Political Ecology
France & Berchtesgaden (fig)
B. The Heartland Theory
• Halford Mackinder
• “He who controls the Heartland, controls the Rimland. He who controls the Rimland controls the World Island. He who controls the World Island controls the world”.
• Are their problems with that?
• Associated with what Cultural Ecology Model?
• Rimland Theory?
Heartland Theory (fig)
C. Warfare and Environmental Destruction
• duh.
IV. Politico-Cultural Integration
• Be careful about these vocabulary words:
• Country: generic term for an international-level government-territory
• The Nation-State-a country where a vast majority of the people are of the same nationality
• Nation: an group of people who share some sort of collective identity (ethnicity)
• The Multinational Country-countries with many nations.
Kurdistan? (fig)
C. Ethnic Separatism
• Many minorities, if they are concentrated in peripheral regions will attempt to break away in a bid for self-determination.
• Frequently this sparks intense conflict.
• Examples?
• Russian support for Serbia.
Multi-Ethnic South Africa (fig)
Russian Nationalists (fig)
Cleavage Model
• Political Tensions frequently develop on the following axes:
– Core vs. periphery
– Urban vs. rural
– Capitalists vs. workers
– Minority vs. majority
• Yugoslavia, former USSR, Northern Ireland
• Palestinians, Kurds, Basques, Chechnyans
• Power of federalism?
Political Imprint on Economic Geography
• Some borders are easier to see because of various governmental policies that encourage differing economic pursuits.
• Borders are economically disruptive-NAFTA
US-Canadian Border (fig)
Religion and Politics
• In many parts of the world, religion is a good indicator of party affiliation.
• Many countries in Europe have parties with names like “Christian Democrats”
• In the United States, conservative religious groups have entered into a precarious alliance with the Republican party in the last 20 years.
• Abortion is the key issue, but other are hidden
V. Political Landscapes
• A. Imprint on the Legal Code
– Cadastral Patterns
– Height restrictions on buildings
– 1. border landscapes
US-Mexico Border
(fig)

Which side is which?
B. Physical Properties of Boundaries
• may be marked or unmarked
• may be heavily defended or almost without evidence
• relic boundaries exist for centuries
• Urban boundaries
Borders are important (fig)
Sweden-Norway Border (fig)
C. The Impress of Central Authority
• The evidence of a strong central government is everywhere!
• Patterns of highways, rail, communication lines
• Suppression of internal borders
• Military bases
Government Height Restrictions? (fig)
National Iconography on the Landscape
• National symbols are easy to find.
• What sort of national symbolism do we have in the US?
• Statues, flags, eagles, monuments, etc.
• What is their function?
• Do they tell the whole story?
National Iconography
• Whose story is being told?
• Whose story is not being told?