Geo 230 blog

 Elections occur often in a "liberal democracy" as any democratic form of government requires the consent of the people. Theoretically, winning or losing elections will have consequences as to the direction a country takes politically. In many democracies this is balanced by the judicial system as well as sometimes by the executive branch. This prevents the voting public from violating societal norms in the name of an election (i.e. passing a referendum that would legalize murder). This post will compare and contrast two different Countries recent elections.  Japan is a Core country and recently had local elections. They may be gearing up for early national elections, if the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) decides it is in their advantage to call early elections.  While this procedure of calling an early election may seem strange to Americans, we don't move our vote in general elections in June after-all, it is a feature of many parliamentary democracies (E.G. Un...

The assignment was to compare and contrast migration patterns as well as immigration issue in the United States of America and the European Union. I am going to do a little bit different and focus on the internal migration between US States and EU Member-States.  The United States is currently, if media reports are to believed, undergoing a internal migration from higher cost of living states primarily in the Northeast to lower tax and warmer States in the Sun-Belt. Here is a sample headline   These articles go into the recent census data that show the fastest growing counties are in the sun-belt where the largest counties as far a numeric decline were LA County and Cook County, Ill (Chicago). The article goes onto state that a Wall Street Journal analysis of the census data concluded, in part, that the suburbs and small and medium size cities have experienced the greatest growth.(Allen 2023). It is too early to tell whether of not these trends will continue and it is als...

 The boundaries of the German State have undergone tremendous change since the end of the Holy Roman Empire.  To paraphrase Voltaire: The agglomeration, the German State is neither holy, roman or an Empire. (Voltaire 2010). In 1776 the German State consisted of over 300 States (State 2023). The map below shows Germany circa 1500 and the many different states that comprised the Holy Roman Empire. Within the Holy Roman Empire, two States would become dominant in the late 18th century, the Kingdom of Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia. (State 2023). The Kingdom of Austria ruled by the Hasburgs was traditionally the dominant power in the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia grew in power and influence in the late 1700s and became a power playing within the Empire.       IEG-Maps, Institute of European History, Mainz / © A. Kunz, 2007 Cartographer: Joachim Robert Moeschl Napoleon swept through the continent in the early 1800s, and in 1806 the Holy Roman Emp...

  (Al Jazeera) As one can see from the above map, the US has military bases through out the world, ensuring our ability to wage warfare far from our shores. Other Nation-States should be deterred from too much unwarranted military aggression against the US as we alone have the ability to project power worldwide.  Afghanistan shows the limits of power projection as while we were able to quickly deploy troops to the region the US was unable to permanently destroy the Taliban, resulting in the Taliban eventually gaining control of the country. Is the inability of the US to successfully export its liberal values a sign that the current K-wave has already crested and rapidly falling, I would argue that our power projection on a world stage is due to our continued status as the financial center of the world. If the US Dollar were to ever be replaced as the reserve currency, I would be more worried, but I feel the US will remain the global hegemon, until my small child is old enough ...