Political Places and Institutional Spaces: The Intersection of Political Science and Political Geography

Political geography is one of the most exciting subdisciplines to emerge from the “spatial turn” in the social sciences. Arising largely within the discipline of geography, political geography has deep implications for political science, and yet these implications have not yet been widely recognized among political scientists. Conversely, political geographers have not yet profited enough from the rich field of political science. Political geography has the potential to dramatically transform many areas of established political science research. We focus on two: (a) the study of “contextual effects” on political behavior and (b) the study of governance by applying the “new institutionalism.” By spatializing the basic premises of these political science subfields, researchers can find new ways of looking at old questions. We conclude that political scientists should move beyond territorial questions of geography and begin thinking about the intrinsic spatiality of all political action, events, and institutions.