Spatial Organization of State Governments

1950s: Richard Hartshorne said forces within state that unify are centripetal, forces within state that divide are centrifugal. Balance of both -> state exists. Cannot conclude if one thing is either/or.

• Examples:
  • war can unify -> centripetal, after war internal struggle -> centrifugal
  • language
  • politics
• Factors: timing, scale, interaction, perspective

Government tries to unify through

• nation-building
• structuring government -> melds nations within state
• defining and defending boundaries
• expressing territorial control

Geography impacts governance.

Form of Government §

Form of government can promote nation building and ease tensions.

Unitary Government §

• Dominated EU til end of WW2
• centralized at capital city
  • capital culture = national culture
  • France had 90 departments, central laws -> region, not other way around
• didn’t serve minorities
  • small nations suppressed
    • Brittons in France
    • Basques in Spain
      • help by including more in national assembly

Federal System §

• central + state government
• strong -> states strong, weak -> central strong
• Nigeria
  • 36 states have own judicial system
  • Muslim North has Shari’a
  • Christian/animist South does not
• US separates federal and state laws
• doesn’t always work: USSR, Yugo, Czech, Belgium

Devolution §

Devolution is the movement of power from the central government to the regional governments within the state.

• federalism
• testing out new stuff without changing constitution
  • Britain and North Ireland Assembly
• arise from ethnocultural, economic, and spatial forces

Ethnocultural Devolutionary Movements §

Ethnicity, language, religion -> devolutionary movements.

• Czechoslovakia
  • peaceful devolution
  • Slovakia discriminate against 11% Hungarians -> push for autonomy
• Yugoslavia
• Lithuania and Ukraine
• Russia vs Moldova and Kalingrad
• Sudan
  • Muslim North, non-Muslim South
• Srik Lanka
  • Singhalese (Buddhist) vs Tamil (Hindu) independence
• China
  • Tibet, Ughyur
• UK and Scotland are peaceful, even evolutionary b/c EU support small groups
  • still want to secede because Brexit and EU market is important

Economic Devolutionary Forces §

Devolutionary pressure comes from variety of sources.

Catalonia §

• ethnocultural
• economic
  • 6% area, 17% population, but 25% exports for Spain
  • nationalism

Italy and France §

• Sardinia b/c economic neglect by Rome
• North/South disparity
  • North = European core
  • Mezzogiorno region in South below Ancona Line = European periphery
• Northern League: indpendent state of Padania north of Po River -> federalism

Brazil §

• 1990s: Rio Grande, Santa Catarina, Paran in south wanted separation b/c taxes -> Amazonia in North
• Pampas

Spatial Influences on Devolution §

Distance/geographical barries -> devolution.

• islands
• Hawaii
  • not enough economic power

Electoral Geography §

Electoral districts are big part of internal poli-geo. Ex: 1994: South Africa provides majority rules but gives power to 9 new states.

Gerrymandering: redrawing voting region border to help a party

Majority/minority district: majority of population in district is a minority overall