· Independent states are the primary building blocks of the world political map.
· Types of political entities include nations, states, nation-states, stateless nations, multinational states, multistate
nations, and autonomous regions.
· The concept of the modern nation-state began in Europe
· Colonialism and imperialism led to the spread of nationalism and influenced contemporary political boundaries.
· Independence movements and democratization have shaped the political map since the end of World War II.
· The fall of Communism ended the Cold War, led to creation of newly independent states, and changed the world
balance of power.
· Political power is expressed geographically as control over people, land, and resources (e.g., heartland, rimland, and
organic theories)
· Territoriality is the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land.
· Boundaries are defined, delimited, demarcated, and administered.
· International boundaries establish the limits of sovereignty and can be the source of disputes.
· Boundaries can influence identity and promote or prevent international or internal interactions and exchanges.
· The Law of the Sea has enable states to extend their boundaries offshore, which sometimes results in conflicts.
· Voting districts, redistricting, and gerrymandering influence the results of elections at various scales.
· Political boundaries do not always coincide with patterns of language, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and economy.
· Forms of governance include unitary states (centralized governments) and federal states.
· Powers of the sub-divisions of states vary according to the form of governance (e.g., the United States and
Switzerland as federal states, France as unitary state)
· State morphology (e.g., compact, elongated, perforated, fragmented, prorupted states) has economic, political, and
social implications.
· Local and metropolitan forms of governance (e.g., municipalities, school districts, regional planning, commissions)
are subnational political units that have varying degrees of local control.
· Some forces that may lead to supranationalism include economies of scale, trade agreements, military alliances, and
transnational environmental challenges.
· Supranationalism is expressed in the creation of multinational organizations (e.g., UN, NATO, EU, ASEAN, NAFTA).
· Some forces that may lead to devolution of states include physical geography, ethnic separatism, terrorism,
economic and social problems, and irredentism.
· Devolution is expressed in the fragmentation of states into autonomous regions (e.g, Nunavut, Native American
reservations). Subnational political-territorial units (e.g, Spain, Belgium, Canada) or Balkanization (e.g., former
Yugoslavia, the Caucasus).
· Advances in communication technology have facilitated devolution, supranationalism, and democratization.
· Centrifugal forces can originate in political dimensions (e.g., majority/minority relationships, armed conflicts)
economic dimensions (e.g., uneven development) or cultural dimensions (e.g., stateless nations, ethnic movements)
· Centripetal forces can originate in political dimensions (e.g, national identity) economic dimensions (e.g., equitable
infrastructure development), or cultural dimensions (e.g., linguistic religious, and ethnic similarities).
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