Differences between countries in the political organization of society and the geospace mastered by it reflect the state-political typologies of countries. In particular, according to the peculiarities of the international status, all countries of the world can be divided into three types:
1) sovereign states;
2) non-self-governing territories,
3) "problem" territories.
The typology according to the differences in the political system has three indicators.
1. Form of government shows the structure of the highest state power, that is, the nature of the relationship between its legislative, executive and judicial branches.
The most common and historically growing in number is the republican form, in which all the highest authorities are formed on an elective or representative basis, the legislative power usually belongs to the parliament, and the executive power to the government.
The oldest republics are San Marino and Switzerland (since the 13th century). National liberation processes, bourgeois and socialist revolutions, wars of the 20th century, the collapse of the socialist countries contributed to their rapid growth (in 1991 - 127, in 1998 - 150).
In presidential republics, which are quantitatively predominant (primarily due to developing countries), the main powers are concentrated in the hands of the president (he is the head of state, government, supreme commander). Various options for such republics are the USA, France, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, the Czech Republic, most of the CIS member countries: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, etc.
In parliamentary republics, the main powers belong to the parliaments that form governments, and the functions of the president are limited (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Israel, Turkey, India, etc.).
In ideocratic republics, the exercise of power by presidents, parliaments, courts and, in general, the functioning of the country's political system are based on a certain political or religious ideology, and the party or leader expressing them plays a key role in government. Such are the socialist and Islamic (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, etc.) republics.
Under the monarchical form of government, the most common as early as the beginning of the 20th century, the supreme state power belongs to one person (monarch - emperor, king, sultan, prince, emir, etc.) and is usually inherited.
Historically, the most ancient variety of this form are absolute monarchies with unlimited power of the ruler. The processes of capitalization of society and bourgeois-democratic revolutions led to the emergence of a new form of monarchical power - constitutional (parliamentary) monarchies, where the powers of the monarch are limited by the constitution, and power functions are concentrated in the hands of parliaments (legislative) and governments formed by them (executive). The collapse of the British colonial system led to the emergence of such a specific form of constitutional monarchy as a "state within the Commonwealth of Nations." It has 16 member countries of this international organization, which recognize the British Queen as the head of their states. The combination of religious and secular functions in monarchical power led to the emergence of theocratic monarchies, where the monarch is also the religious head.
Currently, there are more than 40 monarchies, among which the vast majority are constitutional, represented primarily in Europe (12, especially in the North Sea basin, including Great Britain), Asia (9), Africa (3), America (9 ), Australia and Oceania (5). There are 6 absolute monarchies left (5 in Asia and the Vatican in Europe); three of them are also theocratic - the Vatican, Saudi Arabia and Brunei. A feature of monarchical power in the federal states of Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in the Vatican, is its election.
2. An integral property of the state system of any country is its administrative-territorial unit (or form of government). On this basis, the vast majority of countries in the world are unitary, managed by the central government in all administrative-territorial units.
A younger form is a federation, or a federal (union) state. It is formed by the subjects of the federation (states, republics, provinces, etc.), which share power with the central government and therefore have their own laws (constitutions), representative and executive bodies.
In the late 1990s, there were 27 such countries, including 8 in Europe, 5 each in Asia and Africa, 7 in America, and 2 in Australia and Oceania.
The main reasons for the creation of federations at different times were: the peculiarities of historical development (USA, Germany, UAE, etc.), the vast size of the territory (Canada, Australia, Brazil, etc.) or its disunity (the island Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Comoros), multinational composition of the population (India, Nigeria, South Africa, etc.) or a combination of several reasons (USSR, Russia, Yugoslavia). A number of countries that are unitary have signs of a federation (the presence of autonomous entities in their composition, etc.), for example, Denmark, France.
Historically rare form of government - confederation. It involves the unification of sovereign states (while maintaining their own authorities, constitutions ...) to achieve common goals (military, political, economic, national). Joint legislative and executive bodies (parliaments, presidential councils, commissions...) are formed to coordinate efforts.
The confederations were Switzerland (gradually transformed into a federation), the United States (in the first decade of its history, the United Arab Republic (the unification of Egypt and Syria in 1958-1961). Currently there are no legal confederations in the world, but the European Union has their signs and the Union of Belarus and Russia, which have a number of joint interstate bodies.Unsettled relations between some "unrecognized" states and their "mother" countries (Transnistria-Moldova, Abkhazia-Georgia, Taiwan-China) have a certain confederal potential.
3. Another property of the political system and, in general, the political system of any country is political regime or type of government - means and methods of exercising power.
Democratic regimes are considered to be state power regimes that are characterized by election and separation of powers (legislative, executive, judicial), a rule of law state with equality of all before the law, a multi-party political system. Such regimes have developed in developed capitalist countries, are being formed in most post-socialist countries and in some developing countries (the most developed, for example, in newly industrialized countries).
Authoritarian regimes are characterized by the concentration of power in the hands of one person or body, belittling the role of other state institutions (primarily representative ones), minimizing and suppressing opposition, command methods of leadership, and restriction of freedoms. Features of authoritarianism are usually characteristic of absolute monarchies, but also of many presidential republics of developing countries (especially African, Iraq, etc.) and parts of post-socialist ones (for example, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan).
The totalitarian regime, from the point of view of Western political science, is considered an extreme form of authoritarianism and is a state-political system of government that exercises control over all areas of public life based on the principles of a certain ideology. At present, such regimes are characteristic of most ideocratic republics (in socialist countries, the term "socialist democracy" is usually used to designate it).
What is a political map? A political map is a thematic map on which the borders of all countries of the world, the state borders of all countries of the world are shown with certain highlights. What property does it have? What is the main object of the political map? 379 page. Table 1. How many countries have achieved independence?
230 countries 194 sovereign states Sovereign state - a politically independent state with independence in internal and external affairs Sovereignty - the independence of the state in external and internal affairs
Dominion is an independent state within the British Commonwealth, headed by the British monarch. A metropolis is a state in relation to its colonies.
Grouping of countries of the world. CLASSIFICATION BY THE SIZE OF THE TERRITORY: GIANTS; MEDIUM; MICROG-VA 1. Russia 2. Canada 3. China 4. USA 5. Brazil 6. Australia 7. India 8. Argentina 9. Kazakhstan 10. Sudan Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Vatican, Mauritius, Barbados, Nauru, etc.
BY POPULATION With a population of more than 100 million 1) China (1447 million) 2) India (1240 million) 3) USA (316 million) 4) Indonesia (245 million) 5) Brazil ( 201 million hours) 6) Pakistan (195 million hours) 7) Nigeria (174 million hours) 8) Bangladesh (163 million hours) 9) Russia (143 million hours) 10) Japan (127 million hours) 11) Mexico (117 million hours)
ECONOMICALLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (about 40 countries) G7 50% of world industrial production, 25% of world agricultural production, per capita GDP of 20-30 thousand US dollars. Smaller European countries Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands Non-European countries Former British dominion colonies include: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced by a national economy in one year.
Developing countries This group includes 150 states that occupy more than half of the land area, they are concentrated about 60% of the world's population. Key countries Leaders of developing countries India, Brazil, Mexico, China Newly industrialized countries South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines achieved a high economic index in 80-90. Oil-exporting countries in which, thanks to the influx of "petrodollars", per capita GDP reaches 10-20 thousand US dollars. Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, UAE, Iran, Venezuela. Countries lagging behind in their development are the poorest countries in the world, their GDP per capita is below $300. This group is made up of the backward countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Niger, Chad, Nicaragua.
The political map of the world is a geographical map that shows the state borders of all countries in the world. Currently, there are more than 200 states in the world. It is difficult to indicate the exact number of countries, because the political map of the world is constantly changing. Over the past ten years, such states as the USSR and the SFRY have ceased to exist, the republics that were part of them have acquired the status of independent states; two countries - the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany united into one state of the Federal Republic of Germany, etc. There are countries that have declared themselves independent, but are not recognized as such by the world community (Republic of Srpska). There are countries whose territory or part of the territory is occupied by another state (Palestine - by Israel, East Timor - by Indonesia).
The countries of the world are diverse. They differ:
1) by the size of the territory: the largest - Russia (17.1 million km2); small - Vatican (0.44 km2);
2) in terms of population: large - China (1.2 billion people); small - the Vatican (about 1 thousand people);
3) according to the national composition of the population: single-ethnic, where the vast majority of the population belongs to one nationality (Japan); and multinational (China, Russia, USA);
4) by geographical location: countries that do not have access to the sea (Chad, Mongolia); seaside (India, Colombia); island (Japan, Cuba);
5) according to the state system: monarchies, where power belongs to the monarch and is inherited (Brunei, UAE, Great Britain); and republics where legislative power belongs to parliament, and executive power belongs to the government (USA, Germany);
6) by state structure: unitary (France, Hungary) and federal (India, Russia, USA). In a unitary state, there is a single constitution, a single executive and legislative power, and administrative-territorial units are endowed with insignificant powers. In a federal state, along with a single constitution, there are also legislative acts of administrative-territorial units that do not contradict a single constitution.
In the typology of countries, based on taking into account socio-economic characteristics, socialist countries (Cuba, China, North Korea, etc.), capitalist countries (USA, Germany, etc.), and developing countries (Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, etc.) are distinguished. This typology is based on the existence of capitalist and socialist societies in the world and is now considered obsolete.
In the typology of countries, according to the level of socio-economic development, developed and developing countries are distinguished. The criteria for this typology are the level of economic development, economic potential, the country's share in world production, the structure of the economy, participation in the international geographical division of labor. The general indicator is gross domestic product (GDP) or gross national product (GNP) per capita. This typology distinguishes between economically developed countries (with a special focus on the G8 countries) and developing countries. Developing countries are heterogeneous and also very diverse: countries with medium developed capitalism (Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, etc.); newly industrialized countries (Republic of Korea, Taiwan); oil exporting countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.); countries lagging behind in their development (Afghanistan, Kenya, Nepal). The place of any country in the typology is not constant and may change over time.
Preparation for ZNO. Geography.
Synopsis 38. Modern political map of the world. International organizations. Typology of the countries of the world
Modern political map of the world
Basic terms and concepts
A political map of the World- territorial and political characteristics of the world, continents, geographical regions, reflected on a geographical map.
State- sovereign political entities that have power in a certain territory and conduct their economic activities on it.
Dependencies- countries that are under the rule of foreign metropolitan states and are deprived of political sovereignty and economic independence.
Republic A form of government in which power is vested in elected representatives.
Monarchy- a form of government in which the supreme state power is concentrated in the hands of one person who receives it, as a rule, by inheritance.
Unitary states- countries that do not have autonomous territorial units in their composition.
Federations- states where, along with uniform (federal) laws and authorities, they have separate autonomous territorial units (states, provinces, lands, republics).
Typology- the division of countries depending on the level of their economic development.
Monoculture farm- narrow specialization in several or even one industry.
Typology of the countries of the world
About 230 countries and territories are represented on the modern political map of the world, more than 190 of them are sovereign states.
Among them there are countries with a very large territory and population (China, India, Russia, USA) and very tiny ones - such as the "microstates" of Europe: Monaco, Andorra, Vatican, Liechtenstein, San Marino.
There are mononational countries (Japan, Sweden, etc.) and multinational ones (India, Russia, Nigeria, the USA, etc.); there are rich in natural resources and deprived of them. There are countries that have access to the sea and long maritime borders (Russia, Canada, China, etc.) and those that do not have it, that is, inland countries (such as Chad, Mali, Central African Republic, Paraguay, Nepal, Bhutan). Moreover, very often the geographical position of the country affects the level of its socio-economic development. Some states occupy an entire continent (Australia), while others are located on a small island or group of islands (Nauru, Malta, Cape Verde, etc.).
Each country in the world has its own unique features, however, by identifying any features similar to other states, certain types of countries can still be distinguished.
The type of a country forms a set of conditions and features of development, which, in some essential, sometimes decisive (typological) features, on the one hand, make it related to a number of countries similar to it, and on the other hand, distinguish it from all others. The very existence of types of countries, their historical evolution are the result of the fact that development proceeds in countries at different rates, in different situations, under different conditions and in different ways.
At the same time, it is impossible to distinguish types of countries only on the basis of one or several criteria that are important for all countries. At the first stage of creating a typology, one really has to do a huge amount of statistical work, but then it is still necessary to find similar features that distinguish certain countries into separate groups.
Typologies are different. They take into account a large number of indicators characterizing the level of economic and social development of countries, as well as historical and political aspects, for example, the level of development of democracy, etc. There are typologies that take into account the level of development of capitalism, the level of income of the population and the quality of life, the level of humanitarian development and social progress, etc.
For a long time, a typology was used in scientific literature that divided states into groups according to the principle of belonging to one or another socio-economic formation - capitalist (with a market economy) or socialist (with a planned economy). Moreover, the “developing” countries (or “Third World” countries) that were previously colonial and dependent territories and embarked on the path of independent development were singled out as a special group. But with the collapse of the socialist system, this typology seems to have become outdated.
In addition to scientific value, any typology also has practical significance. Thus, in the UN, when developing a strategy for the further development of the countries of the world, for the provision of financial or humanitarian assistance, a group of least developed states is determined. This group of countries is distinguished on the basis of three main criteria: very low per capita incomes; the share of the manufacturing industry in the structure of the economy is less than 10%; the proportion of illiterates among the adult population is more than 80%. In the early 1990s, 40 countries were assigned to this group: for example, Afghanistan, Haiti, Guinea, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Bhutan, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia and others.
Currently, according to a typology that takes into account the level and nature of socio-economic and political development, three groups of countries of the world are distinguished:
Economically developed states;
Less developed countries (according to the UN terminology "developing countries");
Countries with a "transitional economy" (post-socialist) and socialist countries.
The latter group includes the republics of the former USSR, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in America - Cuba, as well as the Asian states - China, Vietnam, Mongolia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Previously, they were countries of the socialist camp.
After the collapse of the USSR, in the early 1990s, most of the countries of this group underwent very significant changes in politics and economics - they are trying to join the world system of market relations. The transformation processes in these states go beyond the standard reforms, as they are deep and systemic.
Only four states in the world are still socialist: China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea. However, there are also significant shifts in the economies and politics of these countries.
Characteristically, some of the post-socialist countries with low per capita incomes have declared their desire to acquire the status of a "developing" country (for example, the republics of the former Yugoslavia, Vietnam, the Central Asian republics of the CIS). This will give them the right to receive preferential loans and various types of assistance from international banks and funds.
In the most detailed form, the typology of foreign countries of the world (i.e., without countries "with economies in transition" and socialist ones) is presented in a number of publications by Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.V. Volsky and the team headed by him from the Department of Socio-Economic Geography of Foreign Countries of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. This typology is the result of many years of research, it is constantly supplemented and improved.
According to this typology, all countries of the world (with the exception of post-socialist and socialist countries), according to their place in the system of the world economy and international relations, were divided into three main groups:
Economically advanced countries;
Middle-level countries;
Economically underdeveloped countries or, in UN terminology, "developing countries".
In each of these groups, types of countries and even subtypes can be distinguished. Consider the main types of countries in the modern world in accordance with this grouping.
The first group includes:
1. Economically highly developed countries.
These include the USA, Canada, Western European countries, Japan, the Commonwealth of Australia, South Africa, Israel and New Zealand. These states are distinguished by a mature level of development of market relations. Their role in world politics and the economy is great, they have a powerful scientific and technical potential. But it is possible to distinguish three main subtypes within this group:
1.1. The main capitalist countries: USA, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy.
These are the most developed countries in the world in terms of their economic, scientific and technical potential. They differ from each other in the features of their development and economic power, but all of them are united by a very high level of development and the role they play in the world economy.
This group of countries includes six states from the famous "big seven". Among them, the first place in terms of economic potential is occupied by the United States.
1.2. Economically highly developed small Western countries. Europe: Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland.
These countries have reached a high level of development, but each of them, unlike the main capitalist countries, has a much narrower specialization in the world economy. At the same time, they send up to half of their products to the foreign market. In the economy of these states, the share of the non-productive sphere (banking, the provision of various kinds of services, the tourism business, etc.) is large.
1.3. Countries of "resettlement capitalism": Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel.
The first four countries are former British colonies. Capitalist relations arose in them as a result of the economic activities of immigrants from Europe. But unlike the United States, which at one time was also a resettlement colony, their development had some peculiarities.
Despite the high level of development, these states retain the agrarian and raw material specialization that developed in their foreign trade back in the colonial period. But such specialization in the international division of labor differs significantly from similar specialization in developing countries, as it is combined with a highly developed domestic economy.
Israel is a small state formed by immigrants after the Second World War on the territory of Palestine (which was after the First World War under the mandate of the League of Nations under the control of Great Britain).
Canada is one of the "big seven" of economically highly developed countries, but in terms of the type and characteristics of the development of its economy, it belongs to this group.
The second group in this typology includes:
2. Countries with an average level of development of capitalism. There are few such countries. They differ from the states included in the first group both in history and in the level of their socio-economic development. Among them, subtypes can also be distinguished:
2.1. A country that has achieved political independence and an average level of economic development under the dominance of the capitalist system: Ireland.
The present level of economic development and political independence in Ireland were achieved at the cost of an extremely difficult national struggle against imperialism. Until recently, Finland also belonged to this subtype. However, at present this country is included in the group of "Economically advanced countries".
2.2. Lagging countries: Spain, Greece, Portugal.
In the past, these states played an important role in world history. Spain and Portugal created huge colonial empires during the era of feudalism, but later lost all their possessions.
Despite the well-known successes in the development of industry and the service sector, in terms of the level of development, these countries generally lag behind the economically highly developed states.
The third group includes:
3. Economically less developed countries (developing countries).
This is the largest and most diverse group of countries. For the most part, these are former colonial and dependent countries, which, having gained political independence, fell into economic dependence on the countries that were previously their mother countries.
There are many things that unite the countries of this group, including development problems, as well as internal and external difficulties associated with the low level of economic and social development, lack of financial resources, lack of experience in running a capitalist commodity economy, lack of qualified personnel, strong economic dependence, huge external debt, etc. The situation is aggravated by civil wars and interethnic conflicts. In the international division of labor, they occupy far from the best positions, being mainly suppliers of raw materials and agricultural products to economically developed countries.
In addition, in all countries of this type, due to the rapid growth of the population, the social situation of large masses of residents is deteriorating, an excess of labor resources is manifesting, demographic, food and other problems are especially acute. global problems.
But despite the common features, the countries of this group are very different from each other (and there are only about 150 of them). Therefore, the following subtypes are distinguished:
3.1. Key countries: Brazil, Mexico, India (countries with the largest resource, human and economic potential among developing countries and the most diversified economy).
3.2. Countries with relatively mature capitalism. This group includes a wide range of countries - from the states of Latin America to the Arab countries, where the dominance of capitalist relations has been established only in recent decades. Here are the following subtypes:
3.2.1. The resettlement countries of the early development of dependent capitalism: Argentina and Uruguay (in the international division of labor they still act as agrarian countries). These states have a fairly high standard of living for the population. In recent years, there have been very significant changes in the Argentine economy.
3.2.2. Countries with a large-scale development of capitalism: Venezuela, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Algeria (they developed with a massive invasion of foreign capital associated with the export exploitation of large mineral deposits on the territory of these states).
3.2.3. Countries with an outwardly oriented opportunistic development of capitalism (they are characterized by an export orientation of the industry and an import-substituting economy). V Latin America these are Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador; in Asia: Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Republic of Korea; in the North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia.
3.2.4. Small countries with a dependent plantation economy (they are distinguished by a conserved agricultural specialization of the economy and a high share in the export of agricultural products): Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti.
3.2.5. Small countries of the “concession development” of capitalism (the economies of these countries depend to a very large extent on world market prices - the factors for the development of these territories are the concessions of the largest mining corporations): Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Papua New Guinea, Gabon, Botswana.
3.2.6. Small “landlord countries” (islands or coastal countries located at the crossroads of trade routes; tax haven countries, hotel countries, flag of convenience countries): Malta, Cyprus, Panama, Liberia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Singapore etc.
TNCs use these countries to develop tourism on their territory, register ships under the so-called "cheap flags", etc.
3.3. Young Liberated States (transitional type). What their future will be depends on specific socio-economic and political conditions. This group includes about 60 countries from such large ones as Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria to small ones - Gambia, Gabon, etc.
A peculiar type of countries is formed in this subgroup from a number of oil-exporting countries with high incomes from oil trade. These are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Libya, Brunei.
Note that the states of the world included in the first and second groups of the above typology are the industrially developed countries of the world. The third group included all developing countries.
This typology was created when the world was bipolar (divided into capitalist and socialist), and characterized only the non-socialist countries of the world.
Now, when the world is turning from a bipolar world into a unipolar one, new typologies of the countries of the world are being created or the old ones are being supplemented and modified (as is the typology of Moscow State University scientists presented to readers).
As noted earlier, other typologies have also been created. As a generalizing, synthetic indicator, they often use the indicator of gross domestic or national product (GDP or GNP) per capita. Such, for example, is the well-known typological classification of developing countries and territories (authors: B.M. Bolotin, V.L. Sheinis), which distinguishes “echelons” (upper, intermediate and lower) and seven groups of countries (from countries of medium developed capitalism to the least developed ).
Scientists of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University (A.S. Fetisov, V.S. Tikunov) have developed a slightly different approach to the classification of non-socialist countries of the world - evaluative-typological. They performed a multivariate statistical analysis of data for 120 countries on the basis of many indicators that reflect the level of socio-economic and political development of society. They identified seven groups of countries with a level of development from very high (USA, Canada, Sweden, Japan) to very low (Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad, Niger, Mali, Afghanistan, Haiti and others).
The famous geographer Ya.G. Mashbitz singled out types of countries in the "developing world" based on industrialization trends. The first group in his classification included countries where a large and relatively diverse industrial production is developed (Brazil, Mexico, India, etc.); to the second - industrial countries of medium potential with a significant development of raw materials and processing industries (Venezuela, Peru, Indonesia, Egypt, Malaysia, etc.); to the third - small states and territories that use the benefits of their economic and geographical position (Singapore, Panama, the Bahamas, etc.); to the fourth - oil-exporting countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.). And the fifth group included the least industrialized countries with limited development prospects (ie, the least developed countries: Haiti, Mali, Chad, Mozambique, Nepal, Bhutan, Djibouti, Somalia, etc.).
In some economic and geographical typologies, a group of "new industrialized countries" (NIS) is distinguished among the countries of the developing world. These most often include Singapore, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea. In recent years, this group has been supplemented by the "NIS of the second wave" - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and some other countries. The economies of these countries are characterized by high rates of industrialization, export orientation of industrial production (especially science-intensive industries), and their active participation in the international division of labor.
Attempts to typologically differentiate the countries of the world were made by geographers, economists, and other specialists. You will learn more about the characteristics of various typologies of states in further courses. economic geography.