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	TYPE
NODE (settlement, transport, and distribution market pattern)	Boundaries follow path of minimum population.	Minimizes transport cost. Minimizes frontier population. Promotes statistical integrity.	Invisible. Divisive 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	NODE (settlement, transport, and distribution market pattern)
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
RIDGE	Boundary follows mountaintops.	Visible Stable	Inapplicable to plains.	South Asia Pyrenees Swiss cantons	Bohemia Burma Chile	Costa Rica Peru Maryland, USA Pennsylvania, USA	Antiquity to 19th century		RIDGE
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
DRAINAGE BASIN	Boundary separates drainage basins of rivers.	Minimizes conflict over vital resource.	Boundary can be difficult to locate on flat land.	Italy	Gambia	Bangladesh Guinea Portugal Appalachia Colorado, USA North Dakota, USA South Dakota, USA Wyoming, USA Akron, Ohio, USA Blacksburg, Virginia, USA Chicago, Illinois, USA	Antiquity to 19th century	Gary Snyder Kirkpatrick Sale	DRAINAGE BASIN
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
SPOILS	Loser yields territory to victor.	Resists military challenge.	Ignores most practical administrative considerations. Can promote resentment by subject people. Tends to contort and corrupt geographic perception to fit irrational political paradigm.	Americas	Palestine Prussia Tibet Trent Puerto Rico Quebec, Canada New Mexico, USA	Sinai Peninsula	Antiquity to 20th century.	Adolf Hitler	SPOILS
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
TOPOGRAPHIC UNITY	Boundary outlines consistent topography.	Visible	Can affect urban concentrations around gate cities, which tend to develop at mountain gaps.	Scandinavia	Iran Norway	Germany Colorado, USA Maryland, USA New Mexico, USA Texas, USA	Antiquity to present		TOPOGRAPHIC UNITY
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
MILITARY FRONTIER	Boundary includes defensible perimeter.	Animal territory provides biological precedent.	Inefficient to establish and maintain. People of frontier territory must bear burden of security for interior population and institutions of state. Tends to contort and corrupt geographic perception to fit irrational political paradigm.		China Paraguay Iron Curtain	Ireland	Ancient empires to present	Joseph Stalin	MILITARY FRONTIER
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
HISTORY	Boundary placed where it was at some time in the past.	Can be stable.	Inflexible Accumulates inefficiency. Requires research and interpretation of archives. Promotes litigation of old claims. In ovsverving one period of history, can deny all others. Tends to contort and corrupt geographic perception to fit irrational political paradigm.	Africa	Israel	Austria Poland	Perpetual		HISTORY
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
LOCUS	Boundary established at chosen distance from geographic feature (or equal distance from two features).	Easy to establish from map alone.	Usually invisible Usually one-sided	uncommon	Delaware, USA (from New Castle) Essex Co., MA, USA (from Merrimack River) Town of Babylon, Suffolk County, NY, USA (from railroad)	Norway Somalia Nevada, USA	17th-19th century		LOCUS
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
POLYGON	Boundaries follow straight lines between landmarks.	Easy to draw Tend to minimize boundary length	Lines themselves are generally meaningless. Tends to contort and corrupt geographic perception to fit irrational political paradigm.	Africa East coast of U.S.A.	Algeria Kuwait Connecticut, USA District of Columbia, USA towns in New England, USA	Chile Idaho, USA	17th-20th century		POLYGON
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
WATERWAY	Boundary follows main channel of river or other body of water.	Visible	Where river is used for transportation, can divide regions. Following meanders creates lengthy, complex, boudaries that require frequent adjustment. Encourages river diversion.	U.S.A.	Japan Manchuria New Jersey, USA Texas, USA (Red River and Rio Grande)	Portugal	18th-19th century	L.J. Bouchez	WATERWAY
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
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. Tends to contort and corrupt geographic perception to fit irrational political paradigm.	Australia North America	Egypt Wyoming, USA Saskatchewan, Canada Colorado, USA Utah, USA New Mexico, USA	Europe New England South Carolina, USA	19th century	James K. Polk	RECTANGULAR COORDINATES
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
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 ends of Pyrenees	19th-20th century	Otto Von Bismarck	NATION
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
SIZE	Boundaries location chosen mainly to equalize some quantity between jurisdictions.	Tends to equalize budgets and workloads.	Boundaries sometimes fall at inconvenient locations.	Midwestern USA	counties in Kansas, USA (area) planning areas based on council districts in City of San Jose, California, USA (population)	United Nations Argentinian states counties in Arizona, California, and Nevada, USA	19th-20th century		SIZE
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
RELIGION	Uniting people of same religion, separating people of different religions, or pretending to do either.		Concentrates temporal power in hands of ecclesiastical authorities. Divides pluralistic societies. Complicates individual rights.	Asia	Bangladesh Bosnia Israel Ireland	Germany Latvia Lebanon Netherlands Florida, USA	20th century	Mohammed Ali Jinnah	RELIGION
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE
BIOREGION	Boundaries separate ecosystems.	Unites ecosystems and habitats. Promotes conservation.	Can overlap, because of divergence of sub-theories. Can create inefficient narrow strips.		Iceland	Argentina Sudan Turkey Montana, USA Texas, USA	not yet widespread	Planet Drum Foundation National Geographic Gary Snyder Kirkpatrick Sale Peter Berg	BIOREGION
TYPE	DESCRIPTION	ADVANTAGE	DRAWBACK	WHERE COMMON	CURRENT EXAMPLE	CURRENT DEFIANCE	WHEN INITIATED	PROPONENT	TYPE

Sources are listed in the bibliography.

Some boundaries combine theories.

A few examples follow. 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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