Exploring and Analyzing the Impacts of Political Divisions on the Socio-Economic Stability of Rural Settlements (Case Study: Firouzeh City)

Political organizing of the space of every country is done through national divisions with the main goal of decentralizing. Decentralizing is done for easier managing of the country and providing better services. This study was done to investigate and analyze the effects of political divisions on the economic and social stability of rural settlements in Firouzeh. The survey used a descriptive method and quasi-panel design. Using Likert scale, the stability of rural settlements regarding economic dimensions (having 11 variables and 45 indicators) and social dimension (having 13 variables and 30 indicators) before and after the country divisions were compared. The sample consisted of 249 rural households of the city. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by confirmatory factor analysis (Kaiser-Meyer ≥ 0.87, Sig ≤ 0.05) and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha was 0.87, meaning suitable. The results of the paired samples test showed that the average social stability had increased significantly as it was 2.42 before the divisions and 2.94 after the divisions. Though the average economic stability increased from 1.98 to 2.34, it is not significant. The reason is the impact of larger variables like economic sanctions imposed on the country. Generally the decentralization policies at the local level, however, have influenced significantly and positive the stability of the rural settlements of the city.