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Political Patterns and Processes

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Term
Definition
Political geography   A branch of human geography concerned with the spatial analysis of political systems  
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Political map   A map that shows the spatial organization of the countries and territories on the entire globe at a given point in time  
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State/Country   An independent political unit with a centralized authority that makes claim to sole legal, political, and economic jurisdiction over a region with defined boundaries  
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Independent state   A state that rules itself and is not subject to the authority of another state  
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Sovereign state   A state that possesses the sole authority over the land and people within its boundaries  
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Nation   A community of people bound to a homeland and possessing a common identity based on shared cultural traits such as language, ethnicity, and religion  
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Nation-state   The ideal political geographical unit; one in which the nation's geographic boundaries (a people and its culture) exactly match the state's territorial boundaries (governance and authority)  
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Nation-state ideal   The idea that political authorities govern in the name of all a country's citizens, modern mass communications link all residents, and state-based citizenship rights reinforce the idea of a national identity  
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Nationalism   Sense of belonging to and self-identifying with a national culture; people with a strong sense of nationalism derive a significant part of their social identity from a sense of belonging to a nation  
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Stateless nation   An ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own state and is not the majority population in any nation-state  
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Multinational state   A country containing multiple national, ethnic, and religious within its boundaries  
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Multistate nations   Ethnic groups territorially divided by one or more international boundaries  
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Autonomous region   A subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has a degree of self-government, or autonomy, in its decision making  
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Semiautonomous region   A subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has some degree of, but not complete, self-government  
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Self-determination   A nation's ability to determine its own statehood and form its own allegiances and government; the freedom of culturally distinct groups to govern themselves in their own territories and form their own states  
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Core area   A small territorial nucleus from which a country grows in area and over time  
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Escarpments   Abrupt slopes that break up the general continuity of the terrain  
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Effective sovereignty   The idea that a state's power to enforce its sovereignty may extend beyond its territory and varies over time and from coutnry-to-country  
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Devolution   The movement of power from the central government to regional governments within the state  
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Ethnonationalism   A form of nationalism in which the nation is defined in terms of ethnic identity  
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Neocolonialism   The set of economic and political strategies by which wealthy and powerful countries indirectly maintain or extend their influence over less wealthy areas  
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Peripheral states   States that have relatively little industrial development, simple production systems focused mostly on agriculture and raw materials, and low levels of consumption of manufactured goods  
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Core states   States that have the most advanced industrial and military technologies, complex manufacturing systems, external political power, and the highest levels of wealth and mass consumption  
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Shatterbelt   Region of continuing and persistent fragmentation due to devolution and centrifugal forces  
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Choke point   A narrow passage that restricts traffic to another region  
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Strait   A narrow body of water connecting two larger bodies of water  
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Boundary   A clearly demarcated line that marks both the limits of a territory and divisions between territories; often called a border at the global scale  
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Median line principle   An approach to dividing and creating boundaries at the midpoint between two places  
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Borderland   A region straddling both sides of an international boundary where national cultures overlap and blend to varying degrees  
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Frontier   A region at the margins of state control and settlement  
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Enclave   A territory surrounded by a country but not ruled by it  
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Exclave   Part of a national territory separated from the main body of the country to which it belongs  
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Delimited   Describing how boundaries are fixed or defined to identify their limits  
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Demarcated   Describing how boundaries are set apart to distinguish their limits  
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Relic boundary   A boundary that no longer functions as an international border  
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Superimposed boundary   A boundary that is placed on a area without regard to existing boundaries  
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Subsequent boundary   A political boundary that developed with the cultural landscape  
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Antecedent boundary   A boundary that was identified before an area was settled  
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Geometric boundary   A boundary that has regular, often perfectly straight, lines drawn without regard for an area's physical or cultural features  
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Consequent boundary   A boundary that is drawn to accommodate existing cultural differences  
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Demilitarized zone (DMZ)   An area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers, or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel; usually lies along an established frontier or boundary between two or more military powers of alliances  
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Buffer state   A politically and economically weak independent country that lies between the borders of two powers  
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Satellite state   A nominally independent country that is politically, militarily, and economically controlled by a more powerful state  
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United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)   Conference organized to define territorial boundaries and rights to the sea  
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Exclusive economic zone (EEZ)   Zone that extends 200 nautical miles from shoreline in which coastal states have the sole right to exploit, develop, manage, and conserve all water resources lying beyond the land  
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Arctic Circle   Area defined by the 66 degrees, 34 minutes north latitude line  
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Electoral geography   A subfield of political geography that analyzes the geography of political preferences and how geography can shape voting outcomes  
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Voting district   A territorial division for casting votes in public elections; generally, only those who live in the voting district are permitted to cast their votes there  
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Electoral College   A body of 538 electors in the United States; a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president; a state's number of electors equals the number of members in its congressional delegation (one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for its senators)  
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Reapportionment   The process by which the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are divided proportionately by population among the 50 states following every US census  
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Redistricting   The process of drawing new boundaries for US congressional districts to reflect the population changes since the previous US census  
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Gerrymandering   The manipulation of voting district boundaries to favor a particular political party, group, or election outcome  
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Packing   Gerrymandering a voting district by concentrating all of the opposition party into one district, thereby creating a large majority of that party in the district while ensuring that it cannot win any election  
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Cracking   Gerrymandering a voting district by dividing opposition votes into many districts, thus diluting the opposition's votes to ensure it does not form a majority in any district  
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