Balkans
The term is criticized for having a geopolitical rather a geographical meaning and definition, as a multiethnic and political area in the Southeastern part of Europe. The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the water border must be longer than land, with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that's not the case with the Balkan Peninsula. Both Eastern and Western water cathetus from Odessa to Cape Matapan (ca. 1230-1350 km) and from Trieste to Cape Matapan (ca. 1270-1285 km) are shorter than land cathetus from Trieste to Odessa (ca. 1330-1365 km). The land has a too wide line connected to the continent to be technically proclaimed as a peninsula - Szczecin (920 km) and Rostock (950 km) at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odessa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula. Since the late 19th and early 20th-century literature is not known where is exactly the Northern border between the peninsula and the continent, with an issue, whether the rivers are suitable for its definition. In the studies the Balkans natural borders, especially Northern border, are often avoided to be addressed, considered as a "fastidious problem" by André Blanc in "Geography of the Balkans" (1965), while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in "Balkan Economic History" (1971) noted that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old idea of a Balkan Peninsula". Another issue is the name because the Balkan Mountains which are mostly located in Northern Bulgaria are not dominating the region by length and area like the Dinaric Alps. An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory South of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula", but Greece is rarely defined as a Balkan nation both geographically and in international relations. The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by geographical factors yet historical borders of the Balkans.
Balkans
Currently all of the states are republics, but until World War II all countries were monarchies. Most of the republics are parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies, most of which are in the upper-middle income range ($4,000 – $12,000 p.c.), except Croatia, Romania, Greece and Slovenia that have high income economies (over $12,000 p.c.), and are classified with very high HDI in contrast to the remaining states which are classified with high HDI. The states from the former Eastern Bloc that formerly had planned economy system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year, only the economy of Greece drops for 2012 and meanwhile it was expected to grow in 2013. The Gross domestic product (Purchasing power parity) per capita is highest in Slovenia (over $36,000), followed by Greece (over $29,000), Croatia and Romania (over $25,000), Turkey, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia ($10,000 – $15,000) and Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo (below $10,000). The Gini coefficient, which indicates the level of difference by monetary welfare of the layers, is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia, on the third level in Greece, Montenegro and Romania, on the fourth level in Macedonia, on the fifth level in Turkey, and the most unequal by Gini coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the highest in the world. The unemployment is lowest in Romania (below 10%), followed by Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania (10 – 15%), Greece (15 – 20%), Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia (20 – 30%), Macedonia (over 30%) and Kosovo (over 40%).