The political organisation of the world

The political organisation of the

worldInequalities

Globalised economy

Almudena Corrales Marbán Social Studies Department

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What is Geopolitics?

Geopolitics look at how society is organised in relation to geographic space.

The state is the basic way to organise a society.

States are characterised by SOVEREIGNTY IN:

• Economy• Politics• CultureThis sovereignty can be democratic or non democratic.Each state is ruled by the representatives of citizens.

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Currently, states cede part of their sovereignty to supranational organizations:

• European Union• United nations

Almost all the democratic countries belong to supranational organisations, under the idea of UNITY, but also for economic reasons= FREE MARKET, and international cooperation, coordinated along with NGOs .

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POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY

THE STATEFormed by

population territory

underPower of the state

Establish laws Enforce laws

elected

govern

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WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF THE STATE?

1. Establish the laws and regulate the social relations of the population.

2. Responsable for manteining order within the territory and the foreign security through police forces.

3. It establishes international relations with other states.

4. It collects taxes and uses them to finance public services and general infrastructure.

5. It should help promote equality between the different territories and establishes social security beneficts like: unemployment pay, pensions and medical care.

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6. It runs the economy through laws to regulate business activity and the labour market.

7. It provides public services such as education and healthcare and manages infrastructure an collective facilities such as roads, railways, ports, airports, libraries, etc.

Do you think these public services work the same when there is not enough money or the country is going through a crisis or a war?

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THE WORLD´S STATES AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The world has over 200 states. They have complex political and economic relationships.

1. THE POLITICAL SPHERE

In today’s international relations, the following aspects are relevant:

a) The power of USA. This country is the world’s great military power and tends to dominate the international political arena.

To counter this, there is a trend towards multilaterism, which is based on agreements between various countries concerning specific issues. “Balance of powers”Examples: OAS, NATO, SEATO.usforeignpolicy.about.com/od/introtoforeignpolicy/a/What-Is-Multilateralism.htm

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b) The emergence of the Islam as a political reference in some states. Many of these countries, inclusing Iran, have completely rejected Western civilizations and its values.

c) The increasingly important role played by China. It is growing military power causes concern and requires agreements to be reached.

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2. THE ECONOMIC SPHERE

The centre of the economic world is made up of Canada, the United States, Japan and the countries of the EU. These are wealthy countries (MEDCs) that benefited from the capitalist system. Other countries are:

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2.1. Developing countries ( LEDCs) that are economically very active and offer major advantages for foreign companies that what to set up there: skilled or cheap labour, few environmental regulations and strong governments. This group includes a set of countries that are growing more rapidly than others: China Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa, which have competitive, low-cost economies.

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2.1. Least developed countries (poor countries), mainly Sub-Saharan Africa, whose natural resources are exploited by rich countries. Their inhabitants live in poverty and some of them even suffer from natural desasters. They are allso called “forgotten countries”

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What are the challenges today?

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