Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

This unit focuses on political organizations of the world. Developing understanding for this unit includes:

• Contemporary political map and the impact of territoriality on political power and on issues of identity of peoples.

• Different types of political boundaries , how they function, and their scale, as they consider both internal and international boundaries.

• Interplay of political and cultural influences may cause tensions over boundaries to arise, such as sovereign states making claims to what other states consider to be international waters.

• Forms of government and how forces such as devolution may alter the functioning of political units and cause changes to establish political boundaries

• Influences of supranational organizations such as the United Nations or European Union and their role in global affairs presents another challenge to nationalist sovereignty.

• Understanding of cultural patterns and processes helps inform their understanding of the consequences of centrifugal and centripetal forces