ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES

Anywhere that administrative units are established, the boundaries of their jurisdiction must be defined. States and their internal divisions have followed various principles in establishing these boundaries.

(For a discussion of legislative district boundaries, click here.)

Suggestions and additions welcomed at aloe@rev.net.

This chart compares several theories of boundary selection, including the spoils system, the nation state, formation of military frontiers, and recognition of bioregions. A bibliography is being compiled.

TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
NODE (settlement, transport, and distribution market pattern)	Boundaries follow path of minimum population.	Minimizes transport cost. Minimizes frontier population. Promotes statistical integrity.	Invisible. Substantial effect in rural regions.	Latin America	Costa Rica Chile England Italy	Canada Germany Malaysia Saudi Arabia Ukraine Missouri, USA New Jersey, USA	Throughout history.	Walter Christaller G. Etzel Pearcy Jane Jacobs
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
RIDGE	Boundary follows mountaintops.	Visible Stable	Inapplicable to plains.	South Asia Switzerland	Bohemia Burma Chile	Costa Rica Peru Maryland, USA	Antiquity to 19th century
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
DRAINAGE BASIN	Boundary separates drainage basins of rivers.	Minimizes conflict over vital resource.		Italy	Gambia	Bangladesh Guinea Portugal Colorado, USA South Dakota, USA Wyoming, USA	Antiquity to 19th century	Gary Snyder Kirkpatrick Sale
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
SPOILS	Loser yields territory to victor.	Resists military challenge.	Ignores most practical administrative considerations. Can promote resentment by subject people.	Americas	Palestine Prussia Tibet Trent Puerto Rico Quebec, Canada New Mexico, USA	Sinai Peninsula	Antiquity to 20th century.	Adolf Hitler
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
TOPOGRAPHIC UNITY	Boundary outlines consistent topography.	Visible		Scandinavia	Iran Norway	Germany Colorado, USA Maryland, USA New Mexico, USA Texas, USA	Antiquity to present
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
MILITARY FRONTIER	Boundary includes defensible perimeter.	Animal territory provides biological precedent.	Inefficient to establish and maintain. People of frontier territory placed at service of state.		China Paraguay	Ireland	Ancient empires to present	Joseph Stalin
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
HISTORY	Boundary placed where it used to be.	Can be stable.	Inflexible Accumulates inefficiency. Requires research and interpretation of archives. Promotes litigation of old claims.		Israel	Austria Poland	Perpetual
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
LOCUS	Boundary established at chosen distance from geographic feature (or equal distance from two features).	Easy to establish.	One-sided, in most cases		Delaware, USA (from New Castle) Essex Co., MA, USA (from Merrimack River) Town of Babylon, Suffolk County, NY, USA (from railroad)	Norway Somalia	17th-19th century
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
POLYGON	Boundaries follow straight lines between landmarks.	Easy to draw. Tends to minimize boundary length.	Lines themselves generally meaningless.	Africa East coast of U.S.A.	Algeria Kuwait Connecticut, USA District of Columbia, USA	Chile Idaho, USA	17th-20th century
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
WATERWAY	Boundary follows main channel of river or other body of water.	Visible	Where river is used for transportation, can divide regions. Meanders force adjustment. Encourages river diversion.	U.S.A.	Japan Manchuria Rio Grande New Jersey, USA	Portugal	18th-19th century
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
RECTANGULAR COORDINATES	Boundaries follow chosen meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude.	Easy to establish in remote unsettled areas	Ignores attributes of land. Ignores social organization. Requires accurate survey. Can create severe inefficiency if boundary crosses settlement.	Australia North America	Egypt Wyoming, USA Saskatchewan, Canada Colorado, USA Utah, USA New Mexico, USA	Europe New England South Carolina, USA	19th century
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
NATION	Uniting people with common culture.	Promotes cohesion.	Breaks multi-ethnic regions in unsatisfactory ways. Can create minority enclaves.	Europe	Iceland Vietnam	Fertile Crescent Belgium Burundi Rwanda Switzerland	19th-20th century	Otto Von Bismarck
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
SIZE	Boundaries location chosen mainly to equalize some quantity between.	Tends to equalize budgets and workloads.	Boundaries sometimes fall at inconvenient locations.	Midwestern USA	Kansas (area of counties) City of San Jose, California, USA (population of council districts)	United Nations Argentina Arizona, USA California, USA Nevada, USA	19th-20th century
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
RELIGION	Uniting people of same religion.		Divides pluralistic societies.	Asia	Bangladesh Bosnia	Germany Latvia Lebanon Netherlands	20th century	Mohammed Ali Jinnah
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT
BIOREGION	Boundaries separate ecosystems.	Unites ecosystems and habitats. Promotes conservation.	Can overlap. Can create inefficient narrow strips.		Iceland	Argentina Sudan Turkey Montana, USA Texas, USA	Not yet widespread.	Planet Drum Foundation Gary Snyder Kirkpatrick Sale Peter Berg
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT

Sources are listed in the bibliography.

Some boundaries combine theories.

We'd like to hear of others at aloe@rev.net.

TYPES	THEORY	EXAMPLE	DESCRIPTION	CONTRIBUTOR
LOCUS RECTANGULAR COORDINATES	Because locus boundaries are usually mapped with reference to distant monument points, they are difficult to survey on the ground. Some are later moved slightly to coincide with low-level survey boundaries.	Dawson Co., MT, USA	The boundary was established at a given distance from Glendive, then slightly altered to follow rectangular section lines.	Charles Hendricksen
TYPES	THEORY	EXAMPLE	DESCRIPTION	CONTRIBUTOR
NODE RIDGE DRAINAGE BASIN NATION RELIGION	Mountain ridges often separated drainage basins. They can form barriers to transportation, minimizing trade, communication, and migration between communities on opposite sides.	Swiss cantons	Switzerland allows its administrative units to organize around existing communities. People tend to chose to be included with others they are in contact with, often sharing language, religion, and tradition.	Ward Cleaver
TYPES	THEORY	EXAMPLE	DESCRIPTION	CONTRIBUTOR

Related links about geography

Runaway mutant boundaries develop into monolithic monster town of 700,000 inhabitants!

Discussion of legislative districts

The Center for Voting and Democracy discusses methods of election.

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