SOUTHWEST ASIA

Political System
Significant Change in SouthWest Asia
Since the 21st century, significant changes are shattering the old foundations of SouthWest Asia, often culminating into endless conflicts that still divide the region today. However, these changes proved to be vital for SouthWest Asia to cope-up with the changing World. The social hierarchy in SouthWest Asia is slowly progressing to modernity even if conservatives denounced such changes. While, the concept of an Asian family becomes more influenced by western ideas due to the effects of globalization. Globalization is also responsible in binding the SouthWest Asia with the rest of the World. While information becomes more mainstream, the quality of education further improves with the professionalization of teachers and the introduction of new educational materials. On the other hand, the political structures of the different countries are trying to survive from revolutions caused by peoples desire for change. However, this desire often results to violence, revolutions, and civil wars like those of Syria. The people of SouthWest Asia, despite their diversity, share a strong sense of hope of a true and meaningful change. Most of them believe that Peace and Freedom would be achieved in the region where War and Violence is common. They want to break from the past to enter a bright future where dreams and aspirations are realized. However, change would not be attained without a cost and would the people of SouthWest Asia risk to achieve such change?

ARABS: Most countries had a monarchic and dictatorial form of government wherein the people had limited freedom. However, the Arab Spring threatens to overthrow these unfair political systems to achieve democracy and freedom. IRANIANS: Politics take place in a framework of theocracy that is guided by an Islamist ideology. Religious authority has enormous influence in the government of the Islamic republic. TURKS: Most of the countrys political leaders have been high -ranking military officers, university professors, or successful businessmen. Citizens often petition elected officials for favors or aid. Unless they are personally acquainted with an official, they convey a petition through a friend or sponsor who knows an official, a member of his or her family, or one of his or her friends. Turkish law prohibits communist and religious parties. CYPRIOTS: The practice of patronage politics is widespread on both sides of Cyprus, more so on the northern side due to the much smaller size of the population and poorer economic conditions. The government of one side of Cyprus is supported by Greece, while the other side is supported by Turkey. GEORGIANS: Corruption and incompetence in overstaffed law enforcement bodies along with a weak judiciary system have made it difficult to fight crime. The general public is dissatisfied with the existing situation and with the system of law. Sometimes, especially in rural areas with a strong tradition of customary law, the community itself or a victim's relatives will take the law into their own hands and punish the perpetrator of a particularly shocking crime. ARMENIANS: The country is aiming on a Western-syle democratic state, although it still had many shortcomings. AZERBAIJANIS: Political leaders assume and/or are attributed roles described in family terms, such as the son, brother, father, or mother of the nation. Young males have been a source of support both for the opposition and for the holders of powers. Personal charisma plays an important role, and politics is pursued at a personal level.

The region known as Southwest Asia covers the Asian part of the Middle East, which is home to many different ethnic groups, predominantly Arabs. Southwest Asia is the cradle of some of the worlds earliest civilizations and of the three great religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The countries that composed Southwest Asia are:

Reference: http://www.everyculture.com

Submitted by:

RONALD ONGUDA and his groupmates

AB ECONOMICS III-A

ISRAELIS: The legal system is a combination of English common law and British mandate regulations. For personal matters, Jews, Muslims, and Christians are subject to separate jurisdictions.

SOCIAL HIERARCHY

FAMILY

EDUCATION

ARABS: There are three social classes. The upper class includes royalty, influential families, and wealthy people, depending on family background. The middle class is composed of government employees, military officers, and moderately prosperous private businessmen. Farmers and the poor make up the lower class. Bedouins dont really fit into any of these classes. Instead, they are considered the independent Arabs who preserve Arab traditions.

ARABS: The Arab family may be described as the basic unit of production and the center of Arab social organization and socioeconomic activities. It evolved into a patriarchal, pyramidally hierarchical (particularly with respect to sex and age), and extended institution. IRANIANS: In traditional rural society the "dinner cloth" often defines the minimal family. Many branches of an extended family may live in rooms in the same compound. However, they may not all eat together on a daily basis. Sons and their wives and children are often working for their parents in anticipation of a birthright in the form of land or animals.

ARABS: Arab educational systems are still not as good and rewarding as they should be with all the financial, human, cultural and other resources that this region has. However, the educational opportunities increase for women in the Arab world, as well as their chances for integration in the labor force and moving up the employment ladder. In some Arab societies, the school system has undertaken a greater role in children's socialization, significantly reducing the family's role in this process. IRANIANS: Families place a very strong emphasis on education for both boys and girls. For girls this is a more modern attitude, but it was always true for boys. The education system relies a great deal on rote memorization, patterned as it is on the French education system. They write poetry and learn music, painting, and calligraphy, often pursuing these skills privately. TURKS: There is a compulsory secular educational system in which all young Muslim citizens, regardless of ethnicity, were taught that they were ethnically Turkish and citizens of a Turkish nation-state.

IRANIANS: The society presents a puzzle for most standard social science analysis of social structure. High status is precarious in Iran, wherein there is a symbiotic relationship between superior and inferior.
TURKS: The most important determinants of social status are wealth and education. The basic categories include the wealthy urban educated class, the urban middle class, the urban lower class, the large rural landowner class, and the general rural population. A university education is the minimum qualification for entry into the urban educated class, in which there are numerous substrata. CYPRIOTS: There is a reduced possibility of wide-ranging class distinctions, giving rise to a large middle class with few instances of poverty and almost no evidence of destitution, such as homelessness. The full-employment status in Greek Cyprus has contributed to this state of affairs. ARMENIANS: Most Armenians were peasants until the turn of the twentieth century. During the Soviet era, class was de-emphasized. A new elite had emerged, however, based on the nomenclature or system that prevailed during Soviet rule. GEORGIANS: The systems of social stratification changed significantly because of the increasing income gap between the impoverished masses and former white-collar workers, and the new rich, who have used financial and social capital to accumulate capital through privatization or trade, or have taken advantage of corruption in the state bureaucracy. AZERBAIJANIS: Education and family background are vital to social status throughout as wealth became a more important criterion for respect and power. ISRAELIS: The country is not highly stratified economically; most people have a similarly comfortable standard of living. However, the majority of the poor are Palestinian. Recent immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe also tend to be at a disadvantage economically.

TURKS: Traditionally, most Turks traced their descent and passed on property, especially homes and land, through the male line. Even though most households have always contained only one nuclear family, the ideal household, especially among the rural and urban wealthy, was patrilocal extended, in which a son and his bride lived in his parents' home after marriage.
CYPRIOTS: The typical family arrangement on both sides is the nuclear family, often with fairly strong ties towards a more extended family, especially the parents. Most couples hope to have two children, preferably one of each sex. ARMENIANS: The married couple and their offspring constitute the domestic unit. Often paternal grandparents, their married offspring, and unmarried aunts and uncles resided together. GEORGIANS: The basic household in cities is the nuclear family, but frequently, grandparents live together with the family and help to bring up the children. In rural and mountainous areas, a few extended families exist, usually including several brothers with their parents and children. AZERBAIJANIS: The basic household unit is either a nuclear family or a combination of two generations in one household (patrilocal tendency). The head of the household is usually the oldest man in the family, although old women are influential in decision making. In rural areas, it is possible for an extended family to live in one compound or house shared by the sons' families and their parents. ISRAELIS: The most common family unit consists of a nuclear family. In more traditional families, grandparents are sometimes included in this. In the original kibbutz system, the living arrangements were different. Husband and wife lived in separate quarters from their children, who were housed with the other young people. Some kibbutzim still operate in this way, but it is now more common for children to live with their parents, although their days are still spent separately.

CYPRIOTS: Parents take their children's education very seriously, carefully considering which school the children should attend and becoming actively involved in the whole schooling process. Providing a good education is considered as one of the most important parental responsibilities and is very highly valued in general.
ARMENIANS: Education is valued and is given great weight as an agent of socialization. In Armenia throughout the twentieth century, education was free and accessible to all. Because of privatization trends in the post reindependence period, however, there are fears that education may not remain accessible to all. GEORGIANS: Although many parents believe in genetically transmitted qualities and talents, education is valued. Higher education and a university diploma are highly valued even when the quality of education is unsatisfactory. It is almost impossible to have a career without a diploma, although higher education is not always correlated with a higher income. AZERBAIJANIS: Having higher education makes both boys and girls more attractive as prospective marriage partners. Parents go to great lengths to pay fees for higher education or other informally determined costs associated with admission to schools. ISRAELIS: Education is mandatory from the ages five through fifteen. The state runs both religious and nonreligious schools; 70 percent of children attend the nonreligious ones. There is a separate education system for Arab children, where the language of instruction is Arabic.