AP Human Geography

Chapter 7 Study Guide (Part 5)

Electoral Geography
1. What do electoral geographers study?

2. What are the two main electoral systems used in the world today?

3. How does a majority plurality electoral system work?

4. What countries are majority plurality electoral systems typically

associated with?

5. How do proportional representation electoral systems differ from

majority plurality electoral systems?

6. Where are proportional representation electoral systems widely

used?

7. What is required for representation in majority plurality electoral

systems to be equitable?

8. What has to happen regularly in majority plurality electoral

systems on a regular basis to account for changes in population?

9. What is required to take place every ten years in the U.S. in order to
facilitate reapportionment?

10.

What typically follows reapportionment?

11.
What three requirements are there for the drawing of
Congressional district lines?

12.

Who is in charge of redrawing Congressional districts?

13.
Why can the redrawing of Congressional districts be an
extremely contentious exercise?

14.

Explain gerrymandering.

15.
What are the two forms of gerrymandering recognized by
political geographers?

16.

Explain the strategy behind excessive vote gerrymandering.

17.

How does wasted vote gerrymandering work?

18.
How was the Voting Rights Act amended in the 1980s to ensure
that minority voting power is not diluted by gerrymandering of
Congressional districts?

19.

How do majority minority districts work?

20.
According to Figure 7.19 on pg. 222, how was a majority
minority district gerrymandered by the state of Texas in 2004?

Political Landscapes
21.

22.

How do states exercise political control over their people?

How do governments create landscapes of central authority?

23.
How do these landscapes contribute to the process of state
building?

24.

What are security landscapes intended to demonstrate?

25.
According to Figure 7.20 on pg. 224, what example of a security
landscape exists between Israel and the Palestinian territories of the
West Bank?

26.

Why do the Israelis believe this structure is necessary?

27.

What is the Palestinian view of the structure?

28.
What was the International Court of Justices ruling on the
structure in 2004?

29.

How do laws reveal the imprint of a states central authority?

30.
How are farm policies propping up sugar beet production in the
European Union?

31.
Give one example of how laws passed by a states government
can shape the actual physical landscape of the state?

32.
In what way does political iconography encode the physical
landscape with political meaning?

33.
List at least three examples of political iconography in the
United States?