1. The political
organisation of the
world
Inequalities
Globalised economy
Almudena Corrales Marbán
Social Studies Department
2. 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
• Culture
This sovereignty can be democratic or non democratic.
Each state is ruled by the representatives of citizens.
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3. 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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4. POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY
THE STATE
Formed by
population territory
under
Power of the state
Establish
laws
Enforce laws
elected
govern
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5. 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. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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12. 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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