Approaches to Political Geography
There are six approaches that are employed by political geography.
Among them, Richard Hartshorne recognized distinctions within the field of political geography.
1. The Power Analysis Approach
This approach is used by non-geographers and geographers differently. Non-geographers perceive geography as a significant power resource. For example, it divides national power into five components: geographic, economic, political, sociological, and military.
While the Geographical approach based on Power includes
- Location,
- Size and shape of the area,
- The degree to which land is arable or barren,
- The effect of climate, and
- The reservoir of natural resources with which the land is endowed.
A fully geographic approach would make an inventory of pertinent categories such as:
i) The physical environment: landforms, climate, soils, vegetation, water bodies, etc.
ii) Movement: the directional flow of the transportation and communication of goods, men, and ideas.
iii) Raw materials: semi-finished and finished goods: employed and potential in both time and space terms.
iv) Population: qualitative and ideological.
v) The body politic: various administrative forms, ideals, and goals in their areal expressions such as country, state, national, and international bloc framework.
vi) Space: geographers study the impact of space on the internal character and external relations of political units.
2. The Historical Approach
This approach tends to study geographic features according to historical background.
For example, historical political geography studies India as how its geographic map changed with the passage of time. It studies how the boundaries changed from time to time. From the age of indigenous rule, the map is not the same as it is now.
From the Vedic age to Mughal Rule, British Rule, and Present. It’s so obvious in this approach that it happens all the because of political circumstances.
3. The Morphologic Approach
It is the study of form and structure. It calls for a descriptive and interpretive analysis of the external and internal structure of the state area as a geographic object.
The external morphological attributes include size, shape, location, and boundaries, whereas the internal morphological subdivisions include core areas, capital, and the cultural regions.
It also studies political areas according to their form which are their Patterns and Structural Features.
Patterns
refer to the arrangement formed by the association of political units, whether national states, regional blocks, global alliances, or international administrative divisions, as expressed by location, size, and shape.
Structure
On the other hand, refers to the spatial features that political units have in common i.e. population and economic cores, capitals, boundaries, and underdeveloped or otherwise problem units.
4. The Functional Approach
It is concerned with the functioning of an area as a political unit. Every political unit has subordinate areas of organization, each with its own government functions.
For the state to function properly it must have unity, homogeneity, coherence, and viability basic requirements for such a unit. The functional approach would study state strengthening or centralizing forces and state strengthening forces as they are related to space.
The analysis of functional political geography distinguishes the dual functions of any state such as:
Internal Functions
- Freedom of passage across interstate lines
- Inter-racial relations within a country
- internal organization
External Functions
- Territorial relations
- Economic relations
- Political relations
- Strategic relations
5. The Behavioural Approach
Behavior refers to the sequence of interrelated biological and mental operations by which organisms respond to stimuli. The perception and attitudes toward foreign countries among political decision-makers may well affect foreign policy.
1. Individual Behaviour
one man’s behaviour
2. Aggregate Behaviour
Includes such types as mass-group, institutional, and international behaviour.
3. Spatial Behaviour
Indicates where the various attributes of space center in to behavioural as a salient and independent variable. The perception of and attitude of foreign countries among political decision-makers may well affect foreign policy.
4. Territorial Behaviour
The propensity to possess, occupy and defend a particular portion of area refers to the spatial patterns of behaviour, in which each occurrences can be located by geographical coordinates and the resulting pattern can be analyzed.
6. The Systematic Approach
It is derived from General Systems Theory.
The essence of general theory is that it focus on systems of interrelated objects (person or thing), which enter the system of a framework as an inputs, exit as outputs, and interact within it as elements that feed or flow internally.
The emphasis is on the unity or the wholeness of the framework. Systems, in to which new elements enter and from which elements leave, are open systems, in contrast to the closed ones which function through the internal generating of energy. The geopolitical system is advanced as a unit within which the political process interacts with geographical space.
The emphasis is on the unity or the wholeness of the framework. Systems, in to which new elements enter and from which elements leave, are open systems, in contrast to the closed ones which function through the internal generating of energy. The geopolitical system is advanced as a unit within which the political process interacts with geographical space.
References
- KRISHNANAND GEOECOLOGIST (University of Delhi)