Political Geography

 refers to government systems and the land they have influence over

• Political Geography

• Personal Geography

• Preferential Geography

• Physical geography

• an independent unit that occupies a specific territory and has full control of its external and internal affairs

  • Ex. USA

• State

• Communism
• Dictatorship
• Monarchy

• a group of people w/ a common culture living in a territory and having a sense of unity

• Not necessarily in a State/Country

• Ex. the Kurds, Palestinians, Basques

• Nation

• Religious group
• Political party
• Sports team

• a nation and state occupy the same territory

• Ex. Denmark, Germany

• Confederate state
• Autonomous state
• Federal state
• Nation-state

• Boundaries set the limits of the states/countries

  • Border/Boundary can be man made or based on a physical feature (ex. River)

  • Within the border/boundary, the state/country has control (laws, resources,taxes)

  • Sometimes the borders are set by the people of that state, but other times the borders are set by other states

    • Ex. Many African states had their boundaries drawn by Europeans in the 1800’s

  • Read and draw a tennis ball

• States/Countries are often divided into smaller political units to make governing more efficient

  • States

  • __________

  • __________

  • Cities

• Continents

  landforms

• Oceans

  seas

• Counties

  Provinces

• Provinces

  principalities

• Most countries are governed by three major government systems.

• What are they?

• democracy, monarchy, and dictatorship

• fascism, totalitarianism, and imperialism
• anarchy, theocracy, and socialism
• monarchy, dictatorship, and communism

• Citizens have power to change policies/laws

• Citizens have a role in the government

• What government type is this?

• Democracy
• Anarchy
• Monarchy
• Dictatorship

• Democracies are split into two major types

  • _______– Citizens are directly involved (Town Hall meetings)

• Direct democracy
• Oligarchy
• Autocracy
• Indirect democracy

• Democracies are split into two major types

  • _______– Citizens elect/vote representatives who are involved in decision making (USA)

• Representative democracy
• Monarchy
• Dictatorship
• Direct democracy