The internal political geography of a state represents the trade-off between the efficiency of rent-seeking and territorial stability. We examine the constraints imposed by non-state actors, ranging from extortionists to secessionists, on the internal design of states. We show that the states facing secessionist threat are more decentralized and the degree of federalism of a state shares an inverted-U relationship with the size of the state. We also show that both very weak and strong states tolerate extortion and that there can be stable states with limited control over parts of their territory.