VI. How do States Spatially Organize their Governments?

Internal Structure

1.The needs of a well-functioning state

a) Clearly bounded territory served by an adequate infrastructure

b) Effective administrative framework, a productive core area, and a prominent capital

2.All states confront divisive forces

Forms of Government

These two forms promote nation-building and attempt to quell division within…

• Unitary – highly centralized government where the capital city serves as a focus of power.

• Federal – a government where the state is organized into territories, which have control over government policies and funds.

Unitary and Federal Systems

1.Early European nation-states were unitary states:

a)Governments were highly centralized and powerful

b)Capital cities represented authority that stretched to the limits of the state

Unitary and Federal Systems

2. The federal state arose in the New World

a) Newness of the culture, and emergence of regionalism due to the vast size of territories

b) Conditions did not lend themselves to unitary systems of government

c) Absence of an old primate city

d) Lack of a clear core area and the vastness of national territory

Nigeria’s Federal Government – Allows states within the state to determine whether to have Shari’a Laws

Shari’a Laws

Legal systems based on traditional Islamic laws

Minnesota’s concealed weapons law requires the posting of signs such as this on buildings that do not allow concealed weapons.

The U.S. Federal Government – Allows states (sub-states) within the state to determine “moral” laws such as death penalty, access to alcohol, and concealed weapons.

Forces of Fragmentation and Cohesion:

Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces

Centripetal Forces

• Promoting State Cohesion• Nationalism• Unifying Institutions • Organization and Administration• Transportation and Communication• Supranationalism

Centrifugal Forces

• Challenges to State Authority • Less Nationalism • Devolution, Regionalism • Peripheral Location• Social and Economic Inequality

Devolution –Movement of power from the central government to regional governments within the state.

What causes devolutionary movements?

Ex. Ethnocultural forcesEconomic forcesSpatial forces

Ethnocultural Devolutionary Movements

Eastern Europedevolutionary forces since the fall of communism

Ex. Czechoslovakia and

Yugoslavia

Economic Devolutionary

Movements

Catalonia, SpainBarcelona, located in Catalonia, is the center of banking and commerce in Spain and the region is much wealthier than the rest of Spain. It produces 25% of Spanish exports

and 40% of its industrial exports.

Spatial Devolutionary

Movements

Honolulu, Hawai’iA history apart from the United States, and a desire to live apart in order to keep traditions alive.

Supranational Organizations

A separate entity composed of three or more states that forge an association and form an administrative structure for mutual benefit in pursuit of shared goals.

* How many supranational organizations

exist in the world today?At least 60

United Nations

• Background: League of Nations – 1919, idea of Woodrow Wilson but, due to isolationist Americans, U.S. never joined. League collapsed prior to WWII (Italian invasion of Ethiopia). Prior to WWII, states created the Permanent Court of International Justice. After WWII, states formed the United Nations…

• Basics of the UN: – Cooperate with internationally approved standards– 192 members– Aid: refugees, poverty, troops in peacekeeping

operations, human rights

Global Scale – The United Nations

Regional Scale - Europe

• Benelux, 1944: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg• Marshall Plan, 1948-’52: US aid to Western European

Countries• Organization of European Economic Cooperation, 1952 (OEEC)

to

European Economic Community (EEC)

to

European Community (EC)

to

European Union, 1992 (EU)

Regional Scale - Europe

• European Union: domestic, military, and certain sovereign policies that govern all members – 12 European Community (EC) members

established the EU – 1992– Euro introduced in 2002– Problems facing the EU?

• Bailouts to member countries• Subsidies, Germany, Turkey

Original Members: Germany, France, UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark and Ireland

Regional Scale – The European Union(27 Current Members)

Supranationalism Elsewhere…

• NAFTA, ACS, APEC, CIS…• Treaties to reduce tariffs and facilitate

trade• None like the European Union

*Complete Supranationalism Research