Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

LSPU Self-Paced Learning Module (SLM)

Course SOC STUD 3 – Human Geography
Sem/AY Second Semester, AY 2020-2021
Module No. 3
Lesson Title Introduction to Political Geography
Week
13
Duration
Date June 7 – June 11, 2021
In this module, we discuss the nature of Political Geography – its definition, what it
Description studies and its subdivision. You will also know the different philosophers and scholars
of the that contributed to its development.
Lesson

Learning Outcomes
Intended Students should be able to meet the following intended learning outcomes:
Learning • Understand the different concepts and principles that govern the organization
Outcomes of states and international relations
• Use the organizing principles to make sense of the events happening in society
Targets/ At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
Objectives • explain the nature of Political Geography;
• show the relationship between Politics and Geography; and
• explain the importance of Political Geography in the contemporary society

Student Learning Strategies

Online Activities A. Online Discussion via Google Meet

(Synchronous/ You will be directed to attend in a One-Hour class discussion on the
Introduction to Political Geography. To have access to the Online
Asynchronous) Discussion, refer to this link: ____________________. (googleclassroom)

The online discussion will happen on _____, from __:00-__:00AM/PM.

(For further instructions, refer to your Google Classroom and see the
schedule of activities for this module)

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
Offline Activities Lecture Guide
(e-Learning/Self-
Paced) Nature of Political Geography

In defining Political Geography, it is important to understand the two words

that comprise the term Political Geography. Let us start with Geography.
Geography comes from the two Greek word “geographos” which means to
write about the earth. What do we study or write about the earth? We study
about the physical features, the natural processes of the earth, and the culture
and activities of the people that inhabit the earth. However, what distinguishes
Geography from the many disciplines that study and write about the earth is
that it always connects the natural and socio-cultural processes with space and
finds the relationship between the two. How do the physical characteristics of a
space affects human culture and how human activities and culture affect space?

When you hear the world political, what comes into your mind? Well, you
might think of a politician like the President, the members of Congress,
government, elections, and the like. What is common among the concepts that
were cited? You might say that well the President, the members of Congress
and people in government have power, they make decisions and they enforce
the law. People decide who they want to lead them through elections. Yes, we
could say that these are all related to the word political. But what does political
means? The word "political" comes from "politics". Politics may be defined as
the "activity by which groups reach binding collective decisions through
attempting to reconcile differences among members”.

Now that we have defined the two concepts, we could now proceed to define
Political Geography. It is a sub-discipline of human geography that is concerned
with the spatial dimensions of politics within the state and among states. It
studies how space, spatial relationships, and place influences the decisions
made by a state. For example, a state may choose to decentralize and devolve
many functions of the national government to the local government units
because the state’s territory is too large, making it hard for the national
government to immediately and adequately respond to the needs of the people.

Political geography is also concerned with the geographic effects of the

decisions and policies made by the state. As an example, if the current
administration will push through with the Kaliwa Dam project, it may cause
long-term and irreversible damage to the Sierra Madre and its biodiversity,
and the disturbance of the places which the Dumagat-Remontados considered
sacred.

Lastly, Political geography also studies how states relate to other states. It tries
to understand, explain, and predict the behavior of states in dealing with other

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
states using geographical variables. The United States foreign policy towards
the countries in western Asia would be different from the countries in South
Asia due to the presence of an important natural resource in western Asia.

As you can see, the scope of Political Geography is broad so it is subdivided into
two which are Electoral Geography and Geopolitics. Electoral Geography
studies the geographic patterns of election and creation of election districts
while Geopolitics is concerned about international politics and international
relations.

Development of Political Geography

Political Geography, as one of the specialized field of Geography, dates its

foundation at the end of the 19th century with the publication of Politische
Geographie written by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel (Hafeznia,
2017). While Political Geography seem to be a recent phenomenon, interest in
the relationship between Geography and Politics has its roots since the time of
Aristotle who is considered the first political geographer. Many more scholars
followed Aristotle’s footstep. In this section, you will be introduced to the
scholars and philosophers that contributed to the development of Political
Geography.

Aristotle

Aristotle is considered to be the first political geographer. In his book Politics,

he said that the nature of territory and the size of the population determined
the strength or weakness of a state. According to Aristotle there is an optimum
size of population and area for the political viability of a State. He also
introduced several concepts that are considered important in political
geography namely boundaries and frontiers, problems related to the
integration of states, and the idea of coexistence and interdependence within a
larger system of nation-states.

Strabo

Another Greek philosopher and historian who contributed to the field of

political geography was Strabo. He lived during the height of the Roman
Empire and so his perspective was different from the perspective of Aristotle.
The theories developed by Aristotle were focused on small-size states like the
Greek city-states. Strabo on the other hand looked at the problem of state-
building from the perspective of large-size states by studying the Roman
Empire. His findings were published in his book Geography. He concluded that
for a large-size state to be successful, it must have a strong central government

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
and one ruling head of state.

Ibn Khaldun

With the fall of the Roman Empire, interest in geographical studies declined.
However, in the Muslim world, there were advances in geographical study and
one of the leading figures was Ibn Khaldun. He was an Arab scholar of Islam
and considered as one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages. He is
credited as one of the first scholars to focus on man-environment relations. In
his book Muqaddimah, he said that the life of man is influenced by his physical
environment, and his cultural and historical experience. In the field of political
geography, he identified the two different forms of political and economic
organization that corresponds to the two distinct stages in the evolution of
society in a desert environment. In so doing, he introduced one of the earliest
concepts of the life cycle of states.

Jean Bodin

Interest in geographical studies in Europe began to increase during the 16th

century. Leading this revival was Jean Bodin, a French humanist philosopher
and jurist and one of the influential political thinkers during the 16th century. In
his book entitled Six Books of the Commonwealth, he wrote that the national
character of any state was determined chiefly by its climate and topography.
Since the political structure of the state is a reflection of national character, the
political structure also varied from region to region as a result of the
differences in the physical environment. This idea of Bodin laid the foundations
of a comprehensive theory of determinism.

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède and de Montesquieu

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède and de Montesquieu, or simply

Montesquieu, was a French lawyer and a highly influential political thinker
during the Age of Enlightenment. His contribution to Political Geography is the
global model of political geography which holds that freedom and democracy
tend to increase with distance from the equator. This according to Montesquieu
explains why the historical traditions of Asia and Europe are different. Asia
being nearer in the equator is characterized by large empires of subjugated
people with despotic leaders. However, he is best known for his theory of
separation of powers which is enshrined in many constitutions throughout the
world.

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
Friedrich Ratzel

Friedrich Ratzel, a German geographer and ethnographer, is regarded as the

father of modern political geography. He developed an organismic theory of the
State which viewed states as living organisms that are involved in a constant
struggle for larger living space. He also developed the Geopolitical Model of the
State thus laying the foundation of geopolitical theory. He believed that
geopolitics arises from the interaction of power and territory. Geopolitical
theory and the interaction between power and territory are the enduring
legacy of Ratzel. Geopolitical theory has become one of the cornerstones of
contemporary political geography and state foreign policy. Power and territory
still lies at the heart of Political Geography.

Performance Tasks

Why is the study of Political Geography important?

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

Understanding Directed Assess

Learning Resources
Briney, A. (2019). Overview of Political Geography. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/overview-of-political-geography-1435397

Pidwirny, M. (2006). Introduction to Geography. In Fundamentals of Physical Geography. Retrieved from

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/1a.html

Robinson, H. (n.d.). What is political geography (1/2). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/P9SCUFo-LU0

Robinson, H. (n.d.). What is political geography (2/2). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/BYMBci_vOnk

Political Geography (n.d.). Retrieved from https://geography.name/political-geography

Intellectual Property
This module is for educational purpose only. Under section Sec. 185 of RA 8293, which
states, “The fair use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship, research, and similar purposes is not an
infringement of copyright.”
The unauthorized reproduction, use, and dissemination of this module without joint
consent of the authors is strictly prohibited and shall be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,
including appropriate administrative sanctions, civil, and criminal.

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY