ABSTRACT
There are of course many varieties and different levels of politically-organized areas. Units of political organization at a higher level than the sovereign states include the empires that have been organized individually by certain of those states. Local political institutions must conform with the concepts and institutions of the central, overall, political organization. In many social aspects—class structure, family organization, religion, and education—a state may tolerate considerable variation in its different regions. But because of the significance of these factors to political life, there is a tendency—in some states a very marked effort—to exert unifying control even over these institutions. The geographer must beware of drawing conclusions from the physical map on the other hand, of assuming that an economic situation to which we are accustomed represents a "normal" development in economic geography independent of a particular political framework. In times and areas of relatively primitive political development such factors were no doubt of minor importance.
