Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In that year, a vocal minority of native Hawai'ians and
their sympathizers demanded the return of rights lost
during the “occupation.” These demands included the
right to reestablish an independent state called Hawai'i
(before its annexation Hawai'i was a Polynesian king-
dom) on several of the smaller islands. Their hope is
that ultimately the island of Kauai, or at least a signifi cant
part of that island, which is considered ancestral land, will
become a component of the independent Hawai'ian state.
At present, the native Hawai'ian separatists do not
have the numbers, resources, or infl uence to achieve their
aims. The potential for some form of separation between
Hawai'i and the mainland United States does exist, how-
ever. The political geographer Saul Cohen theorized
in 1991 that political entities situated in border zones
between geopolitical powers may become gateway states,
absorbing and assimilating diverse cultures and traditions
and emerging as new entities, no longer dominated by
one or the other. Hawai'i, he suggests, is a candidate for
this status.
Territorial characteristics can play a signifi cant role
in starting and sustaining devolutionary processes. Dis-
tance can be compounded by differences in physical geog-
raphy—a feeling of remoteness can be fueled by being iso-
lated in a valley or separated by mountains or a river. Basic
physical-geographic and locational factors can thus be key
ingredients in the devolutionary process.
Figure 8.15
Barcelona, Spain.
Barcelona's long-standing economic and
political signifi cance is indelibly imprinted in the urban land-
scape. Once the heart of a far-fl ung Mediterranean empire,
Barcelona went on to become a center of commerce and banking
as the Iberian Peninsula industrialized. In the process, the city
became a center of architectural innovation that is not just evi-
dent in the major public buildings. The major streets are lined
with impressive buildings—many with intricate stone façades.
© Alexander B. Murphy.
Electoral Geography
The partitioning of state territory into electoral districts
represents another key component of a state's internal
political geography. Electoral geographers examine how
the spatial confi guration of electoral districts and the vot-
ing patterns that emerge in particular elections refl ect and
infl uence social and political affairs. Various countries use
different voting systems to elect their governments. For
example, in the 1994 South African election, government
leaders introduced a system of majority rule while award-
ing some power to each of nine newly formed regions.
The overall effect was to protect, to an extent, the rights
of minorities in those regions.
In the 1994 election in South Africa, the leading
political party, the African National Congress, designated
at least 35 percent of its slate of candidates to women,
helping South Africa become one of the world leaders in
the percent of women who hold seats in parliament or
legislature (see Fig. 5.17).
The geographic study of voting behavior is espe-
cially interesting because it helps us assess whether peo-
ple's voting tendencies are infl uenced by their geographic
situation. Maps of voting patterns often produce surprises
that can be explained by other maps, and Geographic
Information Systems have raised this kind of analysis to
strengthen devolutionary tendencies. The regions most
likely to seek devolution are those far from the national
capital. Many are separated by water, desert, or mountains
from the center of power and adjoin neighbors that may
support separatist objectives.
Note also that many islands are subject to devolutionary
processes: Corsica (France), Sardinia (Italy), Taiwan (China),
Singapore (Malaysia), Zanzibar (Tanzania), Jolo (Philip-
pines), Puerto Rico (United States), Mayotte (Comoros), and
East Timor (Indonesia) are notable examples. As this list indi-
cates, some of these islands became independent states, while
others were divided during devolution. Insularity clearly has
advantages for separatist movements.
Not surprisingly, the United States faces its most
serious devolutionary pressures on the islands of Hawai'i
(Fig. 8.16). The year 1993 marked the hundred-year
anniversary of the United States' annexation of Hawai'i,
