Project Report (Sociology)

Table of Contents
1. MAJOR SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS.................................................................................................2
1.1. FAMILY INSTITUTION...........................................................................................................2
1.2. EDUCATION INSTITUTION...................................................................................................2
1.3. RELIGION INSTITUTION.......................................................................................................2
1.4. ECONOMIC INSTITUTION....................................................................................................3
2. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTION.....................................................................................................3
2.1. TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS..................................................................................................3
2.1.1. MONARCHY.......................................................................................................................3
2.1.2. DEMOCRACY....................................................................................................................4
2.1.3. AUTHORITARIANISM.....................................................................................................4
2.1.4. TOTALITARIANISM........................................................................................................4
2.2. CHARACTERISTICS OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTION...............................................4
2.2.1. EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION.......................................................................................4
2.2.2. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION..........................................................................................5
2.2.3. ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION...................................................................................5
2.2.4. AUTONOMY TO ASSOCIATE........................................................................................5
2.2.5. CITIZEN INCLUSION.......................................................................................................5
2.3. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE...................................................................5
2.4. SURVEY QUESTIONS..............................................................................................................7
..................................................................................................................................................................8
2.5. CONFLICTS IN GOVERNMENT...........................................................................................8
2.5.1. REVOLUTION....................................................................................................................8
2.5.2. WAR......................................................................................................................................9
2.5.3. TERRORISM.......................................................................................................................9

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1. MAJOR SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

1.1. FAMILY INSTITUTION

The family institution is considered as one of the major social institution. It is the center of all
person’s social activity. It is defined as the social unit created by blood, marriage or adaptation. It
can also be classified as nuclear (parents and children) or extended (comprising of other relatives).

Today it is considered as modern family has undergone significant changes in the structure. It is
being observed that societal changes have contributed to sharp reduction in the percentage of
classical “typical” family i.e. nuclear families. Now there are many new terminologies related to
family institution and these are childless families, one-parent families, quasi-family units based on
non-marital cohabitation. Bane (1976) disagreed with that conclusion and pointed out that family
sizes were getting smaller and mobility was splitting up some families, but the family remained as a
functional social institution.

1.2. EDUCATION INSTITUTION

Education is one of social institution that makes society and the country sustainable and
development. With education, people acquire knowledge, skills, habit, value, and morality, and
attitude (Roth Hok, 2004, p 3). It helps in producing country workforce to meet the current world
challenges of globalization, competitive economy and technological development. So for this
purpose every country designs its own quality of standards for education to meet these challenges by
enlarging their educational setups (schools, colleges and universities) throughout the country. They
also facilitate private organization to work for this purpose within the defined rules and regulation
according to needs of the country. They also work to find the better ways to improve educational
institutes. There are four functions of education: Enculturation i.e. the process of equipping the youth
with nation’s own cultural values and norms, qualification i.e. making them capable of working on
the latest technology with full command, allocation and legitimating i.e. It is the tool to establish and
link the people in society. It provides norm, values and ideology to stabilize the political power and
also cultural and social identity.

1.3. RELIGION INSTITUTION

Religion is a social institution that answers questions and explains the seemingly inexplicable.
Religion provides explanations for why things happen and demystifies the ideas of birth and death.
Religions based on the belief in a single deity are monotheistic. Those that encompass many deities
are polytheistic. “Emile Durkheim” observed long ago that every society has beliefs about things
that are supernatural and awe-inspiring and beliefs about things that are more practical and down-to-
earth. He called the former beliefs sacred-beliefs and the latter beliefs profane-beliefs. Religious
beliefs and practices involve the sacred: they involve things our senses cannot readily observe, and
they involve things that inspire in us awe, reverence, and even fear. Durkheim did not try to prove or
disprove religious beliefs. Religion, he acknowledged, is a matter of faith, and faith is not provable
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or disprovable through scientific inquiry. Rather, Durkheim tried to understand the role played by
religion in social life and the impact on religion of social structure and social change. In short, he
treated religion as a social institution. Sociologists since his time have treated religion in the same
way. Anthropologists, historians, and other scholars have also studied religion.

1.4. ECONOMIC INSTITUTION

The economy is the institution which provides the production and distribution of goods and services.
Sometimes they can provide these things for themselves, and sometimes they rely on others to
provide them. When people rely on others for goods or services, they must have something to
exchange, such as currency (in industrialized societies) or other goods or services (in non-
industrialized societies). The customs surrounding exchange and distribution of goods and services
shape societies in fundamental ways. Sociologists use two approaches when studying society.
In macro-sociology, sociologists analyze large-scale social forces, such as institutions. They identify
and analyze the structure of societies. The second approach, sociologists use is micro-sociology, the
study of social interaction. These sociologists focus on face-to-face interaction, how people act
around others. This method is focused more on individuals than groups. The two dominant economic
systems in the world are capitalism i.e. A system under which resources and means of
production are privately owned, citizens are encouraged to seek profit for themselves and socialism
i.e. A system under which resources and means of production are owned by the society as a whole,
rights to private property are limited, the good of the whole society is stressed more than individual
profit, and the government maintains control of the economy. Most societies have varying blends of
the two systems. Common hybrids of capitalism and socialism are welfare CAPITALISM and state
capitalism.

2. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTION
A government is an institution entrusted with making and enforcing the rules of a society as well as
with regulating relations with other societies. In order to be considered a government, a ruling body
must be recognized as such by the people it purports to govern. A person or group that considers
itself the leading body of a society has no power if the members of the society do not recognize the
person or group as such.

2.1. TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS

Most of the world’s governments fall into one of four categories.

2.1.1. MONARCHY

Monarchy is a political system in which a representative from one family controls the government
and power is passed on through that family from generation to generation. Most of the world’s
monarchies are constitutional monarchies, in which the reigning member of the royal family is the
symbolic head of state but elected officials actually do the governing.

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Example: Saudi Arabia is a monarchy. Until recently it was an absolute monarchy, meaning that the
king had complete control of the country. The Saud royal family introduced a constitution in 1992.

2.1.2. DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a political system in which citizens periodically choose officials to run their
government.

Example: El Salvador has a democratic form of government. Throughout most of the nineteenth
century, El Salvador was beset by revolution and war, and from 1931 to 1979 it was ruled by military
dictators. From 1980 to 1992, the country was torn apart by civil war. The country currently has a
stable government and elected president.

2.1.3. AUTHORITARIANISM

Authoritarianism is a political system that does not allow citizens to participate in government.

Example: Zimbabwe is controlled by an authoritarian leader whose human rights violations and

disastrous economic policies have brought on international condemnation. However, not all
authoritarian governments are outcasts. China has an authoritarian government, but it is a member of
the World Trade Organization and a major player in international politics.

2.1.4. TOTALITARIANISM

Totalitarianism is a political system under which the government maintains tight control over nearly
all aspects of citizens’ lives.

Example: Cambodia under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from 1976 to 1978 was
totalitarian. Under the banner of socialism, Pol Pot attempted a radical reformation of Cambodia. He
forced the evacuation of the country’s cities and relocated citizens to communal farms in the
countryside, where they were to be “reeducated” to become part of an idealized communist agrarian
society. Pol Pot’s secret police tortured and murdered over a million “dissenters,” especially those he
viewed as urban intellectuals.

2.2. CHARACTERISTICS OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTION

2.2.1. EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION

One of the functions of contemporary government institutions is to ensure that citizens to whom they
are entitled participate effectively in decisions in whatever form. This aspect gives legitimacy to
every institution.

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2.2.2. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Institutions ensure that citizens can express their opinion freely by any means. However, this
freedom is penalized in some countries when freedom of expression is used to instigate hatred,
war, racism or xenophobia.

2.2.3. ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION

FREEDOM of information is the right of the media to freely broadcast news without restrictions or
threats. The fact of journalistic research seeks to have informed citizens, a public opinion
substantiated and to achieve a more transparent society.

2.2.4. AUTONOMY TO ASSOCIATE

Free association with political, social, professional or any other purpose is one of the essential
conditions that political institutions must guarantee. As long as they conform to the laws and do not
seek to promote profound changes through violent actions.

2.2.5. CITIZEN INCLUSION

All actors in society are equal for the law so no one can be excluded from their rights by thinking
differently. Government institute ensure the establishment of a regime that guarantees equality and
justice for all the inhabitants.

2.3. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE

 CONDITION AND REGULATE POLITICAL LIFE

Starting from the principles of equality, equity and justice, government institution has the main
function of preparing the political life of a country in order to achieve an increasingly stable, plural
and democratic order.

Examples: In Pakistan, government is unable to provide complete liberty for the political activities.
They always try to stop the paths of opposition on issues related to economy, foreign policy and
other issues of national interest.

 TO REGULATE RELATIONSHIP

The customs and traditions are limited to a certain extent and cannot interpret the formal situations
and events. Here, political institutions play their role to regulate the relationship.

Example:

 MEETING THE PROPOSED OBJECTIVES

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Trace the master plans in the development of coexistence, economics, politics and social and ensure
their effective obedience in time.

Example: In Pakistan, government is always unable to meet their targets related to economics i.e.
budgets targets in revenue collection. Government is unable to deliver their projects of social interest
on time like delays in

 MEETING SOCIAL NEEDS

In every society there are vulnerable sectors, it is the function of the public institutions to seek a
mechanism so that all the inhabitants of a country or region can satisfy the basic necessities such as
education, health, transportation and communication and, thus, have a decent life.

Example: In Pakistan, the government is failed to provide all the necessities to these vulnerable
sectors like the minorities i.e. non-muslims, trans-genders are some to name. Government is also
unable to provide all the basic necessities of life to the far flung area like interior Sind, Baluchistan,
FATA region and southern Punjab. Government is considering CPEC as a game changer project for
all the Pakistan but it will facilitate only some parts of Pakistan not the whole.

 PROTECTION AGAINST DANGERS

Government should be able to protect their citizens from every kind of attacks from outside. These
attacks include military operations, proxy wars and economic attack from other country or any
international organization.

Example: in Pakistan, government is unable to protect their citizens form US drone attacks along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border, continuous ceasefire violations on Line of Control and working border
from India. The government is successful in reducing the frequency of terrorist attacks in the country
but still a lot of work is to be done on this issue to eliminate it completely. On economic front,
government cannot reject the dictations from IMF and has to implement on the country without
considering the after effects on the country’s economy.

 EXERCISE SOCIAL CONTROL

Social control is understood as the system of norms that regulate the life of a nation and the
institutions that are empowered to restore order under any circumstances. In other words, social
control means to bring control over the individuals through laws is to punish the violators by the
state.

Examples: In Pakistan, government has made the laws related to all aspects of life like laws for
economics, laws for maintaining rules and regulations are some to name. But unfortunately
government lack in successful implementation of laws in the country. Apparently it feels like that we
have separate laws for poor and rich people. When any rich person commits any crime it get released
from the laws either by paying money or using influence whereas laws are applied on poor people
only.
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 PROVISION OF RECREATION

In most cases government organizes recreational activities. For instance, government arranges art
council and major games like football and cricket events.

Example: Government of Pakistan is successful in organizing many international events in the

country for recreational purpose of its people like cricket world cup in 1996.

 DECISION OF CONFLICTS

Courts, jails and other means are provided by the state to decide the conflicting situations. So this is
the responsibility of government institution to make law and these laws are to decide the conflicts.

Example: Government has a well-defined system of courts from city level to Supreme Court. These
courts have the function to resolve the conflicts between the two people under laws made by
government and government should ensure their complete implementation.

 COLLECTS REVENUE

Government collects the revenue through taxation to run its administrative machinery efficiently.
Rest of the money is spent on public welfare.

Example: Government of Pakistan has FBR (federal board of revenue) for collection of taxes for
government from the people of Pakistan. All of these work all laws from government of Pakistan.

 CONTROL OVER THE RESOURCES

Government institution directly or indirectly controls all the resources of the state.

Examples: In Pakistan, government has the control of all the resources of the country like mineral
resources, crops, and trade and commerce activities.

2.4. SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. The laws made for Pakistan are right?
2. The amendments made in constitution are right?
3. Is government successful in implementing laws in Pakistan?
4. Is judicial system of Pakistan right?
5. Does judicial system of Pakistan make unnecessary delays in results?
6. Does judicial system of Pakistan have different laws for rich and poor?
7. Does government is capable of protecting from external threats?
8. Is government successful in making Pakistan a “welfare state”?
9. Is Pakistan a successful democratic state?
10. Which type of government system is suitable for Pakistan?

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100%
Which type of government system is suitable for
90%
Pakistan?
80% 2.5. CONFLICTS IN
70%
60% Democracy GOVERNMENT
50% Dictatorship NO
40% YES There are generally three types of conflicts in
30% Monarchy
government.
20% Federal system
10%
Constitutional
0%
government
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Figure 2: Pie chart of question 10 Figure 1: Survey result

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2.5.1. REVOLUTION

A revolution is a sudden change in the political power when people rises in revolt against the current
authorities. It is defined by Aristotle as it is of two types,

1. Complete change from one constitution to another.

2. Modification of an existing constitution.

Figure 3: Protestors around Azadi

Tower, Tehran, 1979

Figure 4: Napoleon
Bonaparte
Revolutions have a big impact on the
culture and society. In history many
revolutions occurred which has
completely changed the socio-cultural
aspects as they have changed the
society’s behavior as a whole and
individually every person’s behavior is
also greatly influenced by them. Any
revolution in a society changes its
government which has an impact on the
social norms, economy and all other
social aspects and this will collectively effect the culture of the society as
the new government has formed new policies, which will be the basis of the
new constitution and a whole new form of government which is beneficial
for the people as they have formed it. Such as the French revolution of 1789
overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, followed by a period of
political disorder and ended in a dictatorship by Napoleon Bonaparte. This
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revolution has a great influence in the decline of many monarchies in the worlds as it is the cause of
abolition of one of the biggest monarchies of that time. It is also regarded as one of the most
important events in human history by Historians. And another revolution which had a great influence
on the course of Islamic history is the Iranian Revolution of 1979 which overthrows the Monarchy
Pahlavi dynasty, a ruling house of Iranian Dynasty. This revolution was leaded by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, it has also affected the international relations of Iran, resulted in Iran-Iraq war.

2.5.2. WAR

War is basically an armed conflict among nations or societies. In

the past, nations have always waged war over the rights of land,
religious rights and some other conflicts regarding resources, etc.
It is characterized by extreme aggression, destruction and
mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. While some
scholars see war as a universal aspect of human nature as
inherited from their ancestors, whereas others gives a point of
view about their occurrence due to specific socio-cultural and
ecological circumstances. There were many wars occurred in the
history, being the examples of destruction and death for the
humanity. The deadliest war in the human history by the number
of deaths since it is started is World War II (WW2), from 1939 to
1945, with 60-85 million deaths. WW2 was a global war, Figure 5: A series of events in WW2
involved the great powers of the World at that time, eventually
forming two opposite military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. Allies mainly includes US, UK,
Soviet Union and China, whereas Axis includes Italy, Germany, and Japan. After WW2 United
Nations was made in order to maintain world peace, and all member nations of UN were bound to
follow the universal declaration of human rights.

2.5.3. TERRORISM

It is a politically motivated violent act on civilians by an individual or

group. In a broad sense it is a use of intentionally indiscriminate
violence as a means to create terror, or fear, to achieve a political,
religious or ideological aim.

The term “terrorist” or “terrorism” originated during the French

revolution, but gained mainstream popularity in the era of US President
Ronal Reagan (1981-1989) due to Beirut Barrack Bombings. The major
terrorist activities in the history are; Attacks on New York City and Figure 6: United Airlines
Flight (high-jacked by
Washington D.C. in September 2001, Bali Attacks in October 2002, terrorists) hits south Tower in
Mumbai Attacks and there were dozens of terrorist attacks took place Now York City, September 11,
in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq in the past two decades. Those acts 2001
of terrorism influenced the society and prevail a feeling of fear among the people of the society.

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Terrorism is mainly utilized by power groups of a country for their political purposes, so that they
can pressurize the government to fulfill their aims. Terrorism is a pure inhumane act. It is mostly
done in the name of religion, but any religion not allows this act of violence against humans.

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