Political Geography: An Introduction

Political Geography: An Introduction

What are Political Phenomena ? 1- Politics

2-Political Organization 2-State

3-Nations

5-Government

Geographical phenomenon

• Definition

cultural environment, interaction among themselves and their combined effect on human society as well as on global environment.

• Environment

,

• Physical Realms :

• Space :

• Diversity or Regional Variation

Land, Climate , Vegetation and Human Life

• Manifestation of Political Phenomenon

over Space

Definition of Political Geography

• Political Geography as Relationship Between Nature and State

• The essential feature of political geography is to determine whether the life of political societies, in part at least, affected by natural frame in which they develop ( Camile Vallaux)

• The aim of political geography is to determine how political organizations are influenced by and adjusted to physiographical conditions and how these factors affect international relation.( Weigert, H.W.1957)

• Political Geography as the Study of Area and Space with Reference

Political Activities

Definition of Political Geography Contd…..

• Political Geography is concerned with the geography of political units (S.V.Volkenberg 1963)

• Political geography is concerned with description and analysis of politically organized area.(Pearcy, G.E. and Alexander, L.M.)

• Political Geography Deals Regional Variation Geo-political-area relations

• Political geography is the study of variation of political

phenomena from place to place in interconnection with variation in other features of the earth as home of man ( Richard

Hartshorne, 1960)

• Political geography is the branch of human geography which deals with spatial variation of distribution of various political phenomena over space: terrestrial, marine as well as

atmospheric, inter-relationship among themselves and the effect of these relations on political socio economic and

environmental attributes of part or whole of the earth .( Khan, N.)

Historical Development of Political Geography

• Early Stage

• Aristotle ( 383-322B.C.) : Politics---Model of Ideal State- Two ingredients- Population and Nature of territory

• 1-Optimum size of population and area for political

viability of state and relationship between these elements and the changing technology

• 2- Distributional characteristics of resident population

• 3-Locational and Morphological problems of capital city ( including strategic and economic consideration)

• 4-Boundary vs frontier as the determinants of territorial expanse

• 5-Problems related to spatial integration of state and

• 6-Notion of co-existence and interdependence within a larger system of nation-state.

Contd…………..

• Strabo (63 B.B. to AD 24)

Geographer

• Geographic Laws of Roman empire

• Discussed Big State Contrary to Aristotle ‘s City State

• Large size state requires strong central government and single ruling head of state

• Dark Age ( 5

to 15 th Century AD)

• Muslim Contribution

• Ibn Khaldum ( 1342-1405

• Tribe and City , two important elements in political hierarchy of Arabs

• During 16^th to 18^th Century( Revival of European studies)

• Jean Bodin(1530-1569): Six Books of Commonwealth

• National character of any state is determined by its Climate and Topography

Contd………..

• Charles Daron de Montequieu(1679-1755)

• Warm climates favor the growth of despotism and

slavery whereas colder climate encourage democracy and freedom.

• He proposed global model of political geography which upheld that freedom and democracy tend to increase with distance from equator.

• Europe is the continent of moderate to small size free nations wherever ruling power in Asia were always despotic, and large empire of subjugated people were the general rule.

• Asia and Africa will fall in 19^th century in the same category of Asia and Europe would be single out as the continent of free nations by virtue of its

geographical advantage.

Contd…….

• William Petty

• Political Arathmatick

• His idea deals with the state geographical sphere of influence – population, density, capital cities, and

principle of intensity and distance as as factors controlling Man’s activities

Classical Period(18 ^th to early 20 ^th Century

• Beginning of word Political Geography

• Immanuael Kant: ( 1724-1804)

• Recognized: 1-Mathematical Geography 2-Moral

Geography 3-Moral Geography 4-Political Geography 5- Commercial Geography 6-Theological Geography

• Kant considered as Father of Political Geography

• Karl Ritter( 1779-1859)

• Founder of modern geography

• Helped in development of geography tract

• Deterministic vision looking nature’s influence on

human culture, stage of culture development varies as the physical environment changes from place to place

• Concept of organic culture

• Human cultures are born, mature and eventually die.

Modern Political Geography

• Social Darwinism and Ratzelian Political Geography

• Survival of the Fittest and the state also has biological necessity for

growth like living organism. State is involved in an endless struggle for living space ( Labensraum).

• Concept of Organic State

• Politische Geographie (1897)

• Ratzel’s six Laws of growth of State

Six Laws

•

1-Space of state grows with culture 2-the growth of state enlarges following the manifestation of spread of people and these manifestation must of necessity come before state will grow.

•

3-State grows through amalgamation and absorption of smaller units

•

4- the frontier is peripheral organ of the state and reflects , therefore, the strength, growth and

changes in the state. 5- in growth state seeks to absorb politically valuable area and

•

6-the general trend towards territorial annexation

and amalgamation transmit the trend from state

to state and intensifies the tendencies.

Conversion of Political Geography in Geopolitics

• Definition of Geopolitics and Political Geography

• Geo-politics may be defined as the subject which deals with political sphere and influence in a particular

geographical area and space. It may be referred as politics of space.

• Political geography makes an analysis of geographical influence in development , organization and function of politically organized space as state.

• Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922) coined term geopolitics first time

• He believed in the process through which territories are transformed from simple geographical areas to

cultural political region, each with distinct personality and instinct for survival, self preservation and

propagation or expansion.

Contd……….

• The process of human occupation of a region gave it, in a casual sequence, continuity, solidarity, interaction,

loyalty and nationality, that is the creation of nation or state with geographical instinct.

• Five steps in analysis of state

• 1-Geopolitik 2- Demopolitik 3-

Oekopolitik( Economic) 4-Socio-politik

5-Kratoploitik( Government )

Geo-Politics in Germany

• Books of Political Geography Published

Politische Geographie Ratzel 1897

Political Geography Alexander Supan 1918 Guiding Principle of General Political Geography Supan 1922

Politische Geographie Walter Vogel Arther Dix 1922 Politische Geographie Otto Mauel 1925

• After first world war Restoring Pre War Status and Glory of Germany

•

Bowman remarked ;

• Political geography was mainly German geo-politics to justify Hitler philosophy of territorial expansio

Karl Hausofer (1869-1946) German Geopolitician

• He was major general in Ist WW in German army

• Appointed as professor to teach political geography and military science

• Established institute of Geo-politics and Published Journal of Geopolitics after Death Rudolf Kjellin in 1924

• He developed many theories on geopolitics and applied for furthering the German nation and succeeded to

reach Germany in second World War.

• Father of German Geo-politics

• Geo politics diffused out of Germany

• Hausofer was much impressed with Meckinder’s

Geographical pivot strategic view , which he described as the greatest of all geopolitical world’s views.

Development of Political Geography in Britain and USA till 1933

• Meckinder (1861-1947)

• Ratzel wrote from the the perspective of emergent and powerful state aspiring for front rank status as world power.

• Mackinder wrote from the perspective of

contemporary Britain as strongest world power whose longstanding superiority in world affair appeared

currently to be seriously threatened by rising strength of Germany and U.S.A.

• Major writings 1-Geographical Pivot of History 1904 2- Britain and British Seas 1906 3-Democratic Ideals and Realities 1919

Contd……..

• American Political Geography

• Seed of political geography germinated in Europe especially in Germany and grew in form of tree in USA

• Issiah Bowman, the first American wrote book on Political Geography (1921)

• Richard Whittlessy Political Landscape Approach

• Volkenberg Geographical Effects on state

• Richard Hartshorne Functional

Approach 1935, 50

Retreat from Political Geography (1933-1960)

• DEGENERATION OF Political geography in Geo-politics

• Political geographers had been so deeply involved in the study of power that It became difficult to

differentiate between political geography and Geo- politics ( Hartshorne 1935 )

• Nazis had exploited some geographical concepts for their aggressive political purposes

• Mixing of geography with politics would inevitably be oriented towards war and conquest (Sprout 1963)

• Political Geography became neglected back water.

Contd………

• Political Geography as Political Chorology or areal differentiation

• Reincarnation of Political Geography in USA

• The Earth and State of Whittlessey:Though the political geography studies state but its main concern is earth surface rather than state.

• Political Geography is study of areal

differentiation in political phenomena (

Derwent Whittelsey)

Contd…………

• If Geography is Science of area, political geography is the science of political

area.(Hortshorne 1935)

• Morphological approach ( Hartshorne ) developed for the study of state which consists of following of

1-Descriptive analysis of state( Location, size, shape, natural and cultural land scape)

2-Interpretation of state-area ( location and

extent of core area, description and extent of territorial change)

3-Appraisal of present territory of state and its

problems.

Spatial –Behavioral Political Geography Mid 1960’s to Mid 1970’s

• Reviving of PG from retreat through the development of Geographical models for

political system study ( Cohen and Rosenthal 1971)

• Political geography / organization as input- output system which could be analyzed by measuring flows that affect it ( Easton 1953, Deutch 1953)

• For example demands made by society on one hand and the government response through corrective action on the other hand.

• Quantitative method added to political

geography, the need of this approach was

opined by Claval, P. as

Contd……

• The new theory developed by political geographers was too concerned with quantitative method to pay attention to qualitative factors without which thought could not pass beyond the state trivial generalizations.

• The publication of The Structure of Political Geography by Kasperson, R.E. and J.V.Minghi (1969) played a significant role in reviving the status of political geography and it helped in consolidating teaching and research in political geography throughout 1970’s.

• The introduction of structural-functional methodology into political geography with its explicit appeal for general

theoretical proposition, the aforesaid book, lowered the

barriers which had previously separated political geography

from mainstreams of social sciences.

Political Economy Perspective mid 1970’s to Mid 1980’s

• To study the competition between ideologies and systems of society to the point of death.

• Violence, disturbances, changes became important challenges of the content of political geography

• Political geography was left with possible contemporary

issues; War and Peace(nuclear proliferation);Global energy crisis(OPEC)

• Radical orientation/ social well being philosophy gave

strength to the study of geographical impact of political or

public policies within the state

Contd….

• Inter-regional and intra-regional disparity in distribution of public goods and bad and

corresponding questions of spatial equity appeared important issues of study in political Geography

• Who gets what, where and how. Who refers

beneficiaries, what means the goods or objects of achievement, where refers regional differences in

distribution of goods and services and how means the process by which observed disparity arise.

• Two schools of thought under political economy perspective 1-liberal/ market free/ lassez faire/

capitalistic and 2-Marxist/ communist/ socialistic/

social wellfare economy

World System: Political Geography Since mid 1980’s

• World System Theory of Wallerstein (1976, 77, 79) reveals that all society over the world are the part of closely interacting global economic system – the world System- so that social and economic changes in any part of earth’s space can be fully understood only when they are placed within the wider context of the global

system.

• Political Geography, quarterly journal became platform for progress of his idea of world system.

• The world system operated through three tier politico- economy structure: Core, periphery and semi-periphery countries.

• Core: Europe. USA and Japan

• Periphery: Under developed and developing countries of third world

• Semi-periphery: Between above two, having character of both two.

Taylor ,P.J’s World Economic Order:1985

• Political Geography

:

•

• He viewed that nation-state works as filter intervening between local and global scale of political operations and contributing to distort realities into false and limited picture so that political protest gets diverted from key processes at global level to political process at state level.

• 1985 is considered as break point between traditional political and modern political geography.

• Before 1985, state was as a pivotal theme of political geography and several other new ideas were accommodated as a new knowledge to this discipline but after Taylor views nation state considered as filter to manipulate and distort the reality of political phenomena.

• The new theory or new political geography draws attentions to an additional set of factors that need to be taken into account in

analyzing political events and phenomena , therefore, these require to be suitably incorporated into our research design.

Recent Development in Political Geography

• In 1920’s Political Geography was defined as wayward child of Geographical Sciences.

• The early post second world war, Political geography retreated into safer realm of study in scale of

individual state.

• There began quickening of trends towards shedding of some of environmental baggage of political

Geography and making the discipline more systematic in character. Hartshorne, Guttmann and Joni are the examples who attempted to provide a new rigorous framework for analyzing the geography of political areas and modern states in particular

• Political Geography was called as Moribund Back Water( Brian Berry 1969)

Contd………

•

Quantitative Revolution , though , was very much utilized in human science study but new political geographers were not attracted to it. The sub

discipline remained as the study of some political phenomena i.e. boundary, capital city, territories, administration, election etc without any concrete coordination among them. They became the real cause of decline of Political Geography after

second world war.

• Political Geography was in doldrum in

1960’s.Other disciplines of social science were in

good position and so political Geography

borrowed havily the theories from social science

but unsatisfactorily improvement occurred.

Contd…….

• The development of system theories (Cohen and

Russenthal 1971) could not overcome the problem, but rarely applied for construction of some universal

model in political Geography.

• However , revival of PG took place due to external influence but not by effort of political geographers themselves.

• After cold war , three system emerged 1-Economic and social Geography including political variables in their analysis and interpretation 2-Radical or Marxist Geography and 3-Revival of Political Geography

Contd……..

•

During 1970’s two distinct themes of research highlighted

•

1- Urban conflict or location of goods and bad in urban political geography . Welfare or critical geography came into being and Cox and other carried forward the welfare paradigm in Political Geography.

•

2- Another branch , electoral Geography , emerged as a new addition in PG where

quantitative techniques were widely applied in

the analysis of different aspects voting patter

analysis. The areas of interest were identified

were -1-Geography of voting 2-Geographical

influence in voting (Neighborhood effect) 3-

Geography of Representation.

Three Groups of Political Geographers

• 1-Status Que Group of political geographers who are concerned with research in traditional themes of

political Geography. Their ultimate concern is political order and stability.

• 2-The reformist group is dissatisfied with current

institutions and society and advocate limited change. For example Welfare , public choice theory, Important works as Public choice paradigm in political geography(1981) by Archer, The New Political Geography-seven Years on (1982) by Hall, The Geography of Social Choice (1981) by Reynolds.

• 3- Merger group between political and Radical geography who neither accept nor wish to reform existing social

and political order. Marxism theories of imperialism are applied within three scale framework.

Thanks