Political Geography Flashcards
Balkanization
The contentious political process by which a state may break up into smaller countries
Antecedent boundaries
A boundary line established before an area is populated
Buffer state
A relatively small country sandwiched between two larger countries; the existence of buffer states may help to prevent dangerous conflicts between powerful countries
Centrifugal forces
Forces that tend to divide a country
Centripetal forces
Forces that tend to unite or bind a country together
Colonialism
The expansion and perpetuation of an empire
Commonwealth of Independent States
Confederacy of independent states of the former Soviet Union that have united because of their common economic and administrative needs
Compact state
A state that possesses a roughly circular, oval, or rectangular territory in which the distance from the geometric center is relatively equal in all directions
Confederation
A form of an international organization that brings several autonomous states together for a common purpose
Democratization
The process of establishing representative and accountable forms of gov’t led by popularly elected officials
Devolution
The delegation of legal authority from a central gov’t to lower levels of political organization, such as a state or country
Domino theory
The idea that political destabilization in one country can lead to collapse of political stability in neighboring countries, starting a chain reaction of collapse
East/west divide
Geographic separation between the largely democratic and free-market countries of Western Europe and the Americas from the communist and socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia
Electoral College
A certain # of electors from each state proportional to and seemingly representative of that state’s pop.; each elector chooses a candidate believing they are representing their constituency’s choice; the candidate who receives a higher proportion of electoral votes within a state receives all the electoral votes for that state
Electoral vote
The decision of a particular state elector that represents the dominant views of that elector’s state
Elongated state
A state whose territory is long and narrow in shape
Enclaves
Any small and relatively homogenous group or region surrounded by another larger and different group or region
European Union
International organization comprised of Western European countries to promote free trade among members
Exclave
A bounded territory that is part of a particular state but is separated from it by the territory of a different state
Federalism
A system of gov’t in which power is distributed among certain geographical territories rather than concentrated within a central gov’t
Fragmented state
A state that is not a contiguous whole but rather separated parts
Frontier
An area where borders are shifting and weak and where ppls of different cultures or nationalities meet and lay claim to the land
Geometric boundary
Political boundaries that are defined and delimited by straight lines
Geopolitics
The study of the interplay between political relations and the territorial context in which they occur
Gerrymandering
The designation of voting districts so as to favor a particular political party or candidate
