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Political regions and scale

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Modern Political Geography

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Abstract

Regions are defined by geographers in terms of their possession of one or more unifying factors. The regions studied in political geography exist through the presence of some form of internal political unity, which may derive from the unification of the region under a single sovereign government or a single local authority, from the existence within it of a particular political outlook or aspiration, from the functional unity of the region as an area of formal international cooperation, or from the existence of informal underlying supranational characteristics. The state is the traditional and, to a lesser extent, continuing focus of political-geographical attention, and constitutes the most distinctive and developed political-geographical form. Though there are strong political, economic and social forces working in the directions of both intra and supranational regionalisation, the state will retain its paramount political status so long as state sovereignty remains the basis of statehood. While the power of ultimate decision-making remains with the sovereign governments, decisions affecting supra or intranational developments must be made by these governments or in respect of them.

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  1. Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, UK

    Richard Muir

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© 1981 Richard Muir

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Muir, R. (1981). Political regions and scale. In: Modern Political Geography. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86076-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86076-0_8

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-86076-0

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