Political Geography 2025 - 2026
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Possible Exam Questions (Second Exam)
Multiple Choice and Open Questions
2025/2026
GE02-3038
Exam Preparation – Answers Sheet Example
1
, Political Geography 2025 - 2026
Political Geography
The course Political Geography, explains why power and place is linked to each other. The course
examines the relationship between power and space, focusing on how societies control and organize
their territories. The field studies how political processes shape territorial order and how political
organization interacts with social and economic functions across different scales; e.g global, national,
and local. Furthermore it analyses the changing political geography of cities and regions and how
their legitimacy evolves over time.
The objectives of the course:
Understanding the major themes, concepts and approaches.
Identify and understand the theoretical approaches to the field of Political Geography
Understanding the relationships between political, economic, societal and geographic phenomena.
Comprehend why and how changes in these fundamental relationships have consequences for others
Literature:
Terlouw; Political geography of cities and regions – changing legitimacy and identity
Flint & Taylor; Political Geography – World-economy, Nation-State, and Locality
Additional literature, such as (Arzheimer & Bernemann, 2024) & (Huisjmans et al., 2021)
Table of contents
Examples of Multiple Choice Questions For The Second Exam 3
Answers of the Multiple Choice Questions For The Second Exam 7
Information about the Example Questions
The following document contains 20 multiple-choice questions designed to help you review and
understand the key concepts of the course Political Geography. The questions are meant as practice
material and do not reflect the exact format or number of questions that will appear in the official
exam, which includes far fewer questions.
However, working through these examples will give you a broader and deeper understanding of the
main themes, such as sovereignty, state manoeuvrability, globalisation, populism, and place-based
politics. The questions are designed to test both theoretical knowledge and analytical understanding,
helping you connect the ideas of scholars like Flint & Taylor, Wallerstein, and others to real-world
political geography contexts.
Use these examples to assess your comprehension, identify areas that need more focus, and
strengthen your ability to apply theory to contemporary political and economic processes. Each
question includes a descriptive title to help you recognise which topic you understand well and which
areas may require further study and reflection.
2
, Political Geography 2025 - 2026
Practice Multiple Choice Test For The Second Exam
Examples of Multiple Choice Questions for the second exam
Question 1a: According to Gellner, nationalism arises primarily because:
a) Humans are naturally territorial
b) Industrial society requires cultural homogeneity
c) The ruling elite imposes it for control
d) It is rooted in ancient tribal loyalties
Question 1b: What does Gellner mean by “industrial high culture”?
a) A form of elite artistic expression
b) The standardized, literature culture required for an industrial economy
c) The cultural dominance of the working class
d) The traditional customs of pre-industrial peasants
Question 2a: Benedict Anderson’s concept of the nation as an “imagined community” emphasizes:
a) Ethnic purity
b) Shared ancestry
c) Social imagination through media and language
d) Military unity
Question 2b: Lipset and Rokkan’s cleavage theory (1967) connects electoral geography to historical
developments. What was their main argument?
a) Voting behaviour is purely random and cannot be spatially analysed
b) Geographical voting patterns emerged from 19 th-century social and political revolutions
c) Voting geography only reflects recent globalization patterns
d) Electoral behaviour is primarily driven by personality traits
Question 3a: Billig’s term “banal nationalism” refers to:
a) The extreme form of national violence
b) Everyday symbols that reproduce national belonging
c) Political indifference to the state
d) Nationalism in developing countries
Question 3b: Which of the following best represents “banal nationalism”?
a) Soldiers saluting the flag during wartime
b) Citizens celebrating national independence day
c) A news broadcast showing a weather map with national borders
d) A government’s declaration of war
3
, Political Geography 2025 - 2026
Question 4a: The “Double Janus” of nationalism describes:
a) The alliance of two nationalist movements
b) The inward/outward and past/future faces of national identity
c) The union of religion and nationalism
d) The rise and fall of empires
Question 4b: Which of the following best illustrates the “double Janus”?
a) France’s transition from monarchy to democracy
b) Japan looking inward to preserve culture and outward to compete economically
c) The USA’s separation of powers
d) India’s linguistic diversity
Question 5a: Which of the following is NOT one of the varieties of nationalism listed by Flint & Taylor?
a) Liberation nationalism
b) Proto-nationalism
c) Unification nationalism
d) Global nationalism
Question 5b: In the Netherlands, “de-pillarization” refers to:
a) The increased role of monarchy in elections
b) The decline of traditional religious and class-based voting blocs
c) The rise of military involvement in politics
d) The adoption of a new electoral system
Question 6: What role did print capitalism play in the rise of nationalism, according to Anderson?
a) It helped unify linguistic and cultural communities across space
b) It undermined national solidarity by spreading global ideas
c) It was limited to the upper classes and had little influence
d) It focused on religious rather than political communication
Question 7: Which statement best reflects the relational nature of identity?
a) It is static and timeless
b) It develops through similarities and differences with others across space
c) It is purely biological
d) It is determined by ancestry alone
4
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Possible Exam Questions (Second Exam)
Multiple Choice and Open Questions
2025/2026
GE02-3038
Exam Preparation – Answers Sheet Example
1
, Political Geography 2025 - 2026
Political Geography
The course Political Geography, explains why power and place is linked to each other. The course
examines the relationship between power and space, focusing on how societies control and organize
their territories. The field studies how political processes shape territorial order and how political
organization interacts with social and economic functions across different scales; e.g global, national,
and local. Furthermore it analyses the changing political geography of cities and regions and how
their legitimacy evolves over time.
The objectives of the course:
Understanding the major themes, concepts and approaches.
Identify and understand the theoretical approaches to the field of Political Geography
Understanding the relationships between political, economic, societal and geographic phenomena.
Comprehend why and how changes in these fundamental relationships have consequences for others
Literature:
Terlouw; Political geography of cities and regions – changing legitimacy and identity
Flint & Taylor; Political Geography – World-economy, Nation-State, and Locality
Additional literature, such as (Arzheimer & Bernemann, 2024) & (Huisjmans et al., 2021)
Table of contents
Examples of Multiple Choice Questions For The Second Exam 3
Answers of the Multiple Choice Questions For The Second Exam 7
Information about the Example Questions
The following document contains 20 multiple-choice questions designed to help you review and
understand the key concepts of the course Political Geography. The questions are meant as practice
material and do not reflect the exact format or number of questions that will appear in the official
exam, which includes far fewer questions.
However, working through these examples will give you a broader and deeper understanding of the
main themes, such as sovereignty, state manoeuvrability, globalisation, populism, and place-based
politics. The questions are designed to test both theoretical knowledge and analytical understanding,
helping you connect the ideas of scholars like Flint & Taylor, Wallerstein, and others to real-world
political geography contexts.
Use these examples to assess your comprehension, identify areas that need more focus, and
strengthen your ability to apply theory to contemporary political and economic processes. Each
question includes a descriptive title to help you recognise which topic you understand well and which
areas may require further study and reflection.
2
, Political Geography 2025 - 2026
Practice Multiple Choice Test For The Second Exam
Examples of Multiple Choice Questions for the second exam
Question 1a: According to Gellner, nationalism arises primarily because:
a) Humans are naturally territorial
b) Industrial society requires cultural homogeneity
c) The ruling elite imposes it for control
d) It is rooted in ancient tribal loyalties
Question 1b: What does Gellner mean by “industrial high culture”?
a) A form of elite artistic expression
b) The standardized, literature culture required for an industrial economy
c) The cultural dominance of the working class
d) The traditional customs of pre-industrial peasants
Question 2a: Benedict Anderson’s concept of the nation as an “imagined community” emphasizes:
a) Ethnic purity
b) Shared ancestry
c) Social imagination through media and language
d) Military unity
Question 2b: Lipset and Rokkan’s cleavage theory (1967) connects electoral geography to historical
developments. What was their main argument?
a) Voting behaviour is purely random and cannot be spatially analysed
b) Geographical voting patterns emerged from 19 th-century social and political revolutions
c) Voting geography only reflects recent globalization patterns
d) Electoral behaviour is primarily driven by personality traits
Question 3a: Billig’s term “banal nationalism” refers to:
a) The extreme form of national violence
b) Everyday symbols that reproduce national belonging
c) Political indifference to the state
d) Nationalism in developing countries
Question 3b: Which of the following best represents “banal nationalism”?
a) Soldiers saluting the flag during wartime
b) Citizens celebrating national independence day
c) A news broadcast showing a weather map with national borders
d) A government’s declaration of war
3
, Political Geography 2025 - 2026
Question 4a: The “Double Janus” of nationalism describes:
a) The alliance of two nationalist movements
b) The inward/outward and past/future faces of national identity
c) The union of religion and nationalism
d) The rise and fall of empires
Question 4b: Which of the following best illustrates the “double Janus”?
a) France’s transition from monarchy to democracy
b) Japan looking inward to preserve culture and outward to compete economically
c) The USA’s separation of powers
d) India’s linguistic diversity
Question 5a: Which of the following is NOT one of the varieties of nationalism listed by Flint & Taylor?
a) Liberation nationalism
b) Proto-nationalism
c) Unification nationalism
d) Global nationalism
Question 5b: In the Netherlands, “de-pillarization” refers to:
a) The increased role of monarchy in elections
b) The decline of traditional religious and class-based voting blocs
c) The rise of military involvement in politics
d) The adoption of a new electoral system
Question 6: What role did print capitalism play in the rise of nationalism, according to Anderson?
a) It helped unify linguistic and cultural communities across space
b) It undermined national solidarity by spreading global ideas
c) It was limited to the upper classes and had little influence
d) It focused on religious rather than political communication
Question 7: Which statement best reflects the relational nature of identity?
a) It is static and timeless
b) It develops through similarities and differences with others across space
c) It is purely biological
d) It is determined by ancestry alone
4
