Conflict and compromise: political geography at the IGU Congress in Sydney, Australia, August 1988

Abstract

The following is a brief report on the papers -delivered in Section N: Political Geography at the 26th Congress of the International Geographical Union (IGU) in Sydney, Australia in August 1988. Most of the papers were concerned with aspects of conflict and their actual or likely resolution either within or between states. Needless to say, the subject matter ranged widely and included discussion on electoral matters, government structures, defence, colonialism, war, regional conflict, nationalism and the likely causes of political conflict. Two papers traced the dynamics of electoral conflict as expressed through changing regional patterns of electoral representation at the national scale. Kenneth Martis from West Virginia University reported on some of the findings contained in his mammoth Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the US Congress 1789-1989 which details the changing regional pattern of Congressional party conflict in more than 30000 elections. Akihiko Takagi of Nagoya University analysed the pattern of regional change in political party support over the past 30 years in Japanese general elections. The considerable metropolitanization process in Japan, especially from the 1960s has not been associated with an increase in support for Japan’s two major political parties (Liberal Democratic party and Japan Socialist party) but rather with an increase in support for the Japanese Communist party. The territorial allocation of power within states and the conflicting relationships among various levels of government continues to be an important theme in political geography. In this regard, Herman Van der Haegen of the Catholic University of Louvain discussed the complex process of adjustment in progress in Belgium from a unitary to a federal state based on ethnicity. At the sub-national scale, Max Barlow of Concordia University argued that during the last 100 years metropolitan government has been replaced by metropolitan governance. The application of the concept of metropolitan government with responsibility over a range of metropolitan-wide functions has been replaced by a range of special-purpose authorities and sub-metropolitan districts resulting in increased fragmentation and centralization of power at the national level. As a result, structures of metropolitan governance may not be able to meet area needs at the metropolitan scale. The functions of sub-national government and their relationship with national political priorities in New Zealand were discussed by Ali Memon of the University of Otago. In New Zealand, local government has always been relatively strong and autonomous. Currently, however, the very basis of governmental intervention by all levels of government is under concerted review. This