GEOG 129 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Universal Suffrage, Geopolitics, Oligarchy

• School: UBC Okanagan, UBC OK
• Department: Geography
• Course: GEOG 129
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Groupings of states: two key trends within geopolitics unstable states looking for independence, and groups of states actively choosing to unite. European union: sentiment for unification occurred in the context of growing powers of us and ussr, place in the world for a united europe, but not for some patchwork of european states, other examples: nafta, asean, un. Democracy: regular free and fair elections to principal offices, universal suffrage, government open and accountable to the public, freedom for state citizens to organize and communicate with each other. In many states, political authority is not entirely centralized at the national level. There are three levels of centralization: unitary: the most centralized form of government local governments are used by the central state to organize the political hinterland, federal: the least centralized. World distribution of state types: federal, unitary, compound unitary (i), and compound unity (ii, checks and balances in place of a federated system.