Economic Policy and Class Structure in Syria: 1958–1980
It is indeed an interesting endeavor to investigate the impact of economic policies on social stratification. Doing so enables us to see to what extent economic policies bring changes in class structure in a society. We take the case of Syria to study its economic policies and their accompanying impact on the evolving pattern of the Syrian elite from the late 1950s to the early 1980s and then look at accompanying impact on class structure. The two poles or aspects of this paper are (1) economic policies themselves and (2) their impact on class structure. The question that we are going to raise in the first pole is the following: what is the nature of the economic policies? This refers to land reforms, industrial and commercial reforms, and foreign trade controls.
A Decentralized Approach to Urbanization: The Case of Syria
This article is concerned with urban ization strategies in Third World countries and their effects on the di rection of urbanization and on re ducing regional and urban-rural dis parities. The article considers Syria and documents that urbanization has not slowed down during the past two-and-a-half decades, but that its direction has shifted from the largest cities to regional and secondary cit ies. It is argued that the reasons for this shift are equity considerations in the allocation of resources and a strong sense of regional loyalties at the national level, as well as the util ization of national planning to im prove the socioeconomic and exter nal economies of secondary and regional cities.
An assessment of the Impact of Devolution on Women Empowerment in Nakuru County
-Women have been grossly marginalized in organs of decision-making and governance structures. The Constitution of Kenya has sought to bridge this gap by providing both women and men the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. However, gender equality has not been achieved and women are still lagging in terms of decision making processes. The main objective of the study was to detemine the impact of devolution on women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study found that substantive women representation, development of programs and accessibility of services had a positive effect on the women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study also found out that increased accessibility of Services by women influenced women empowerment, this study also concludes that the introduction of development programs had the greatest impact on women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study recommends that more programs targeting women should be introduced as these have the greatest impact on women empowerment. The findings may be used to make conclusions and recommendations.