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Chapter 8
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Anocracy | A country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic but rather displays a mix of the two types |
Autocracy | A country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people |
Balance of power | A condition of roughly equal strength between opposing countries or alliances of countries |
Boundary | An invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory |
City-state | A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediately surrounding countryside |
Colonialism | An attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory |
Colony | A territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than completely independent |
Compact state | A state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly |
Democracy | A country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office |
Elongated state | A state with a long, narrow shape |
Federal state | An internal organization of a state that allocates strong power to units of local government |
Fragmented state | A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory |
Frontier | A zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control |
Gerrymandering | The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power |
Landlocked state | A state that does not have a direct outlet to the sea |
Microstate | A state that encompasses a very small land area |
Multiethnic state | A state that contains 2+ ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities |
Nation-state | A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity |
Perforated state | A state that completely surrounds another |
Prorupted state | An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension |
Self-determination | The concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves |
Sovereignty | Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states |
State | An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs |
Terrorism | The systematic use of violence by a group calculated to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm among a population or to coerce a government into actions it would not otherwise undertake or refrain from actions it wants to take |
Unitary state | An internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials |