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The process of the transfer of some political power from the national/central government to regional levels of government. Usually occurs due to centrifugal forces.
Devolution. Devolution happens when a national/central government shares governing powers with smaller governments, usually because the country is diverse and/or is experiencing many centrifugal forces. A good example is Spain and its Basque and Catalonia states. Because Spain does not want to upset the people who live in Basque and Catalonia, Spain has agreed to give up some governing power to share it with Basque and Catalonia.
What is the number of representatives in the US House of Representatives?
435. When reapportionment is in process, the government is trying to determine how many representatives should be given to each state depending on what the size of their population is. The bigger the state population, the more representatives the state receives. The smaller the state, the fewer they receive.
The practice of multiple countries forming an organization for the benefit of all members is called
Supranationalism. Supranationalism is when countries give up some autonomy to join a club/organization that is made up of other countries. Each supranational organization has its own purpose (eg, NATO's purpose is a military alliance to defend against non-member states). Be sure to remember the 6 supranational organizations we briefly covered in class! (Arctic Council, African Union, ASEAN, EU, NATO, and the United Nations)
A count of the population, every 10 years, to ensure national congressional districts have approximately the same number of people; mandated by the US Constitution.
The census. The census is a population count of the entire country. We wanna know how many people are in the country so the government can 1) determine how many representatives each state will receive (reapportionment) and 2) draw new boundaries (redistricting).
When district boundaries are drawn to protect or increase the power of the political party that is currently in power.
Gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is when district boundaries are drawn to make sure the political party in power always wins their elections! Remember the two major types of gerrymandering strategies we went over in class: packing and cracking! <- check out my slides to see what exactly those terms mean.
A community of people with a common identity through shared cultural traits such as language, religion, ethnicity.
Nation. A nation is when a community is culturally, ethnically, and racially the same. A good example would be Native American groups, such as the Cherokee and Navajo nations.
When the borders of the nation match the borders of the state - a state with (ideally) only one nation within it. There are no true examples of this, but the closest we've got are Japan (98%) and Finland (90%), among a few others.
Nations of people without a state to occupy. Examples include Kurdistans, Basque, and Palestinians.
Stateless nation. A stateless nation is 1+1=2. Why? Well, remember: a nation is just a community of people who are culturally, ethnically, and racially the same... and state just means country... and what do we think state-less means? Lol it just means "without a state/country". Therefore, a stateless nation is a community of people who are culturally, ethnically, and racially the same, but who do not have a home country. Most of the time, these people used to have a state, like the Palestinians, for example. After World War 2, England converted Palestine into Israel, a nation-state for Jewish people.
A state with various ethnicities and cultures within its borders. Examples include the US, Russia, and Nigeria, among others.
Multi-national state. This is a term describing a country that has many nations within it. Another way to think about it is a country with MULTIple groups of people; a very diverse country. A good example is the United States.
A narrow feature that restricts passage to another place. These can appear on land as a narrow valley or at sea as a narrow body of water (we only covered the body of water version in class).
Choke points. Choke points are narrow passages that generally experience a lot of traffic due to the transportation of goods from one country to another. Whoever controls a choke point has incredible power and advantages over other states!
A geographic area where citizens can vote in an election.
Voting district. A voting district is a geographic area where citizens can vote in elections. Generally speaking, your voting district is close to where you live.
The two major ways political parties gerrymander their state.
Packing and cracking!
States and countries with no geographical access to an ocean.
Landlocked states. Basically, if you look at a map and see countries that do NOT touch an ocean, they are considered "landlocked" states. Remember: landlocked states usually have lower life expectancies because it is more difficult to get resources into the country than it is to countries with access to the ocean.
What is the difference between centripetal forces and centrifugal forces?
Centripetal forces are things that keep a country together (or bring peace), such as when a country shares the same culture, like language and religion. Centrifugal forces are things that create tension within a country, such as when a country is diverse and has multiple cultures within it. The United States is a good example of a country with various centrifugal forces because there are so many cultures and practices within it.
What is the difference between a unitary style government and a federal state style government?
The major difference is that a unitary style government does not share its power with smaller governments, such as regional and/or local governments. Usually, the regional and local governments simply carry out orders (administrative work) On the other hand, a federal state style government DOES share power with smaller regional and local governments. A good example is the United States, which consists of multiple layers of government, each layer possessing its own power.
Describes people who have a primary allegiance to a traditional group or ethnicity and not the state they reside in. In other words, they do not feel loyal to the country they live in, but feel loyal to a particular racial/ethnic/cultural group or region.
Subnationalism. People who are subnationalists do not feel loyal to their country, but rather feel loyalty to a region WITHIN the country or a particular racial/ethnic/cultural group. A good example of this are the people that live in Quebec, Canada. Quebec is a province in Canada (basically, the same way the US has 50 states, Canada has 10 provinces) and the people who live there are so loyal to it that they've tried to declare their independence from Canada several times without success.
The fragmentation of a state or region into smaller, often hostile, units along ethno-linguistic lines.
Balkanization. This is when a country splits up into multiple pieces and each piece is its own country. All of the new countries start fighting with each other. This is what happened with the country of Yugoslavia. The country of Yugoslavia was made up of several small countries and was created in response to the creation of the communist Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union ended, the country of Yugoslavia split up into smaller countries and each country started fighting with each other.
A type of boundary that takes into account the existing cultural distribution of the people living in the territory and redevelops boundary lines to more closely align with cultural boundaries.
Consequent boundary. A type of boundary that takes into account the existing cultural distribution of the people living in the territory and redevelops boundary lines to more closely align with cultural boundaries. For example, when the British decolonized India, they split it up into two different countries: India and Pakistan. They created India to include the Hindu population and Pakistan to include the Muslim population.
Borders that are established before there has been major settlement by people in a territory. Usually, these are physical features such as oceans and mountains.
Antecedent boundaries. These boundaries are easily identifiable because they are usually just physical features, such as mountain ranges or oceans. The Andes Mountains are a good example because they have separated Chile from Argentina for a very, very long time.
States, territories or parts of a state or territory that are completely surrounded by the territory of another state.
Enclave. An enclave is a piece of a country that is legally part of one state/country, but is surrounded by another country. Google the city of Baarle in Europe, which is in enclave for both Belgium and the Netherlands (this is the city that was featured in the video that I showed you guys during the lecture).
Powerful European countries gathered to divide up the continent of Africa and establish new borders.
The Berlin Conference. The Berlin Conference was a meeting of European powers in which they divided up the continent of African to determine who would colonize who. The borders are consider superimposed borders because the European powers did not take into account cultural differences of the people living in Africa, which resulted in territories made up of people who sometimes did not get along with each other.
This was a treaty signed to end World War I. It redrew boundaries in Europe and Southwest Asia.
The Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles ended World War 1 and split up countries into smaller countries, such as the Ottoman Empire and Germany. This would result in future tensions that would play a role in the start of World War 2.
Describe the situation between Spain, Catalonia, and Basque.
Catalonia and Basque are regions in Spain that are culturally different and therefore, they have been wanting independence from Spain for a long time. Not only that, but the people in Catalonia and Basque have their own unique history with the land. This has led to devolution, which means Spain has been giving up governing power to Catalonia and Basque to prevent them from declaring independence.
Describe the situation in Kashmir.
Kashmir is a region in India in the mountains. Because it is in the mountains, the government of India struggles to govern it. This is mostly because the people of Kashmir are so isolated from India that they sometimes do not even feel like they are a part of the country. In order to prevent them from declaring independence, India has granted them some autonomy, meaning they have the power to govern themselves to an extent. This is also a type of devolution!
Describe the situation in Nigeria.
Nigeria has mostly Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. In order to prevent tension between the two groups, the government of Nigeria gives autonomy to both regions since Nigeria has a federal state government. Remember: the act of a national government giving power to smaller governments within the state is called devolution and usually this is done to avoid conflict.