Political system of Syria
This article is about recent and past political developments in Syria. For the Syrian government, see
Government of Syria
.
Politics in the
Syrian Arab Republic
takes place in the framework of a
presidential republic
[1]
[2]
with nominal
multi-party representation
in
People's Council
under the Ba'athist-dominated
National Progressive Front
. In practice, Syria is a
one-party state
where independent parties are outlawed; with a powerful
secret police
that cracks down on dissidents.
[3]
[4]
Since the
1963 seizure of power
by its
Military Committee
, the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
has governed Syria as a
totalitarian
police state
.
[a]
After a period of intra-party strife,
Hafez al-Assad
gained control of the party following the
1970 coup d'etat
and his family has dominated the country's politics ever since.
[5]
[6]
[7]
Until the early stages of the
Syrian uprising
, the president had broad and unchecked
decree
authority under a long-standing
state of emergency
. The end of this emergency was a key demand of the uprising. Superficial reforms in 2011 made presidential decrees subject to approval by the
People's Council
, the country's legislature, which is itself dominated to parties loyal to the president.
[8]
The Ba'ath Party is Syria's ruling party and the previous Syrian constitution of 1973 stated that "the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party leads society and the state."
[9]
At least 183 seats of the 250-member parliament are currently reserved for the
National Progressive Front
, a Ba'ath Party dominated coalition that consists of nine other satellite parties loyal to Ba'athist rule.
[10]
[11]
The rest of the seats are occupied by independents, who are nominated by the Ba'ath party.
[12]
The
Syrian Army
and security services maintained a
considerable presence
in the neighbouring
Lebanese Republic
from 1975 until 24 April 2005.
[13]
50th edition of
Freedom in the World
, the annual report published by
Freedom House
since 1973, designates Syria as "Worst of the Worst" among the "Not Free" countries, listing
Assad government
as one of the two regimes to get the lowest possible score (1/100).
[14]
[15]
Background
[
edit
]
Hafez al-Assad
took power in 1970. After his death in 2000 his son, Bashar al-Assad, succeeded him as president. A surge of interest in political reform took place after Bashar al-Assad assumed power in 2000.
Human-rights
activists and other civil-society advocates, as well as some parliamentarians, became more outspoken during a period referred to as the "
Damascus Spring
" (July 2000-February 2001), which was crushed by the Ba'athist government under the pretext of "national unity and stability".
[16]
Hafez al-Assad built his government around three pillars, core of which is the Ba'ath party and its affiliated organizations which holds extensive influence over the society through its monopoly over the media and civil activism.
Alawite
elites who are loyal to the
Assad family
form another patronage network. The final pillar is the pervasive military apparatus that is managed by the
Ba'athist Central Command
; consisting of
Syrian Arab Armed Forces
,
Mukhabarat
and various Ba'athist paramilitaries, all of which are headed by senior party leaders who directly answer to the Assad patriarch.
[17]
Neo-Ba'athism
[
edit
]
The Ba'ath platform is proclaimed succinctly in the
party's slogan
: "Unity, freedom, and socialism." The party is both socialist, advocating state ownership of the means of industrial production and the redistribution of agricultural land (in practice, Syria's nominally socialist economy is effectively a mixed economy, composed of large state enterprises and private small businesses), and revolutionary, dedicated to carrying a pan-Arab revolution to every part of the Arab world. Founded by
Michel Aflaq
, a Syrian
Christian
,
Salah al-Din al-Bitar
, a Syrian
Sunni
, and
Zaki al-Arsuzi
, an
alawite
, the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
, which was dissolved in 1966 following the
1966 Syrian coup d'etat
which led to the establishment of one
Iraqi-dominated ba'ath movement
and one
Syrian-led ba'ath movement
. The party embraces secularism and has attracted supporters of all faiths in many Arab countries, especially Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Six smaller political parties are permitted to exist and, along with the Ba'ath Party, make up the
National Progressive Front
(NPF), a grouping of parties that represents the sole framework of legal political party participation for citizens. While created ostensibly to give the appearance of a multi-party system, the NPF is dominated by the Ba'ath Party and does not change the essentially one-party character of the political system. Non-Ba'ath Party members of the NPF exist as political parties largely in name only and conform strictly to Ba'ath Party and government policies. There were reports in 2000 that the government was considering legislation to expand the NPF to include new parties and several parties previously banned; these changes have not taken place. However, one such party- the
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
- was legalised in 2005.
Traditionally, the parties of the NPF accepted the Arab nationalist and nominally socialist ideology of the government. However, the SSNP was the first party that is neither socialist nor Arab nationalist in orientation to be legalised and admitted to the NPF. This has given rise to suggestions
[
by whom?
]
that broader ideological perspectives would be afforded some degree of toleration in the future, but this did not occur: ethnically-based (Kurdish and Assyrian) parties continue to be repressed, most opposition parties are illegal, and a strict ban on religious parties is still enforced.
Syria's Emergency Law was in force from 1963, when the Ba'ath Party came to power, until 21 April 2011 when it was rescinded by Bashar al-Assad (decree 161). The law, justified on the grounds of the continuing war with
Israel
and the threats posed by terrorists, suspended most constitutional protections.
[13]
[18]
Government administration
[
edit
]
Leadership in
Damascus
:
Leadership of the
Syrian opposition
in
Idlib
:
The previous
Syrian constitution
of 1973 vested the
Ba'ath Party
(formally the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party) with leadership functions in the state and society and provided broad powers to the president. The
president
, approved by
referendum
for a 7-year term, was also Secretary General of the Ba'ath Party and leader of the
National Progressive Front
. During the
2011?2012 Syrian uprising
, a
new constitution
was put to
a referendum
. Amongst other changes, it abolished the old article 8 which entrenched the power of the Ba'ath party. The new article 8 reads: "The political system of the state shall be based on the principle of political pluralism, and exercising power democratically through the ballot box".
[19]
In a new article 88, it introduced presidential elections and limited the term of office for the president to seven years with a maximum of one re-election.
[20]
The referendum resulted in the adoption of the new constitution, which came into force on 27 February 2012.
[21]
The president has the right to appoint ministers (
Council of Ministers
), to declare war and states of emergency, to issue laws (which, except in the case of emergency, require ratification by the
People's Council
), to declare amnesty, to amend the constitution, and to appoint
civil servants
and
military
personnel. The late President
Hafiz al-Asad
was confirmed by unopposed
plebiscites
five times. His son and current President
Bashar al-Assad
, was confirmed by an unopposed referendum in July 2000. He was confirmed again on 27 May 2007 with 97.6% of the vote
[5]
[22]
Along with the
National Progressive Front
, the president decides issues of war and peace and approves the state's 5-year economic plans. The National Progressive Front also acts as a forum in which economic policies are debated and the country's political orientation is determined.
The Syrian constitution of 2012 requires that the president be Muslim but does not make
Islam
the state religion. The judicial system in Syria is an amalgam of
Ottoman
,
French
, and Islamic laws, with three levels of courts: courts of first instance,
courts of appeals
, and the constitutional court, the highest tribunal. In addition, religious courts handle questions of personal and
family law
. The Ba'ath Party emphasizes
socialism
and secular
Pan-Arabism
. Despite the Ba'ath Party's doctrine on building national rather than
ethnic
identity, the issues of ethnic, religious, and regional allegiances still remain important in Syria.
Political system of the
Assad regime
has been characterized as a hybrid of
absolute monarchy
and republic.
[23]
[24]
Syrian security apparatus and the dreaded secret police are instrumentalized by the regime to instill terror among ordinary citizens to prevent critique of the
President
or organize demonstrations. Political dissidents
Riad al-Turk
and
Suheir Atassi
have described
Ba'athist Syria
as a "Kingdom of Silence" which maintains monopoly over political discourse by seeking the total de-politicization of the society itself.
[25]
[26]
Political parties and elections
[
edit
]
All registered political parties in Syria are participants within the
Assadist
system, that proclaims its loyalty to the ruling Ba'ath party and are stipulated by the government to advance the interests of the
Ba'athist state
. Registered parties are constantly surveilled and regulated by the
Ba'athist Political Security Directorate
(PSD), and are permitted to operate only under the directives issued by the PSD.
[27]
The last parliamentary election was on 19 July 2020 and the results were announced on 20 July.
[28]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Syria: Government"
.
CIA World Factbook
. Archived from
the original
on 3 February 2021.
Government type presidential republic
- ^
"Syrian Arab Republic: Constitution, 2012"
.
refworld
. 26 February 2021. Archived from
the original
on 5 March 2019.
- ^
"Freedom in the World 2023: Syria"
.
Freedom House
. Archived from
the original
on 9 March 2023.
- ^
Lucas, Scott (25 February 2021).
"How Assad Regime Tightened Syria's One-Party Rule"
.
EA Worldview
. Archived from
the original
on 25 February 2021.
- ^
a
b
"The World Factbook ? Central Intelligence Agency"
.
cia.gov
. Retrieved
25 June
2017
.
- ^
Syria 101: 4 attributes of Assad's authoritarian regime
- Ariel Zirulnick
- ^
Karam, Zeina
(12 November 2020).
"In ruins, Syria marks 50 years of Assad family rule"
.
AP News
. Archived from
the original
on 12 November 2020.
- ^
Syria's state of emergency
, Al Jazeera, 17 April 2011.
- ^
Article 8 of the Constitution
- ^
"Syria"
.
Freedom House
. Archived from
the original
on 19 March 2022.
- ^
"Syria 2022 Human Rights Report"
(PDF)
.
United States Department of State
. pp. 70, 71. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 21 March 2023.
- ^
Manea, Elham (2011).
The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance
. New York, NY: Routledge. p. 84.
ISBN
978-0-415-61773-4
.
- ^
a
b
"Syria"
. Retrieved
25 June
2017
.
- ^
"Freedom in the World 2023: Syria"
.
Freedom House
. Archived from
the original
on 9 March 2023.
- ^
Freedom in the World: 2023
(PDF)
(Report) (50th anniversary ed.). March 2023. p. 31 – via Freedom House.
- ^
"Syria in Crisis: The Damascus Spring"
.
Carnegie Middle East Center
. 1 April 2012. Archived from
the original
on 24 May 2022.
- ^
Ma’oz, Moshe (2022). "15: The Assad dynasty". In Larres, Klaus (ed.).
Dictators and Autocrats: Securing Power across Global Politics
. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 249?250.
doi
:
10.4324/9781003100508
.
ISBN
978-0-367-60786-9
.
- ^
Decrees on Ending State of Emergency, Abolishing SSSC, Regulating Right to Peaceful Demonstration
Archived
28 March 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Syrian Arab News Agency
, 22 April 2011
- ^
"SANA Syrian News Agency - Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic Approved in Popular Referendum on February 27, 2012, Article 8"
. Archived from
the original
on 14 October 2012
. Retrieved
25 June
2017
.
- ^
"SANA Syrian News Agency - Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic Approved in Popular Referendum on February 27, 2012, Article 88"
. Archived from
the original
on 14 October 2012
. Retrieved
25 June
2017
.
- ^
"Presidential Decree on Syria's New Constitution"
.
Syrian Arab News Agency
. 28 February 2012. Archived from
the original
on 29 February 2012
. Retrieved
28 February
2012
.
- ^
Wright,
Dreams and Shadows
, (2008), p.261
- ^
Ma’oz, Moshe (2022). "15: The Assad dynasty". In Larres, Klaus (ed.).
Dictators and Autocrats: Securing Power across Global Politics
. New York, NY: Routledge. p. 249.
doi
:
10.4324/9781003100508
.
ISBN
978-0-367-60786-9
.
- ^
Solomon, Christopher (2022). "1:Introduction".
In Search of Greater Syria: The History and Politics of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
. New York, NY: I.B. Tauris. p. 7.
ISBN
978-1-8386-0640-4
.
- ^
Yacoub Oweis, Khaled (16 May 2007).
"Syria's top dissident urges Assad"
.
Reuters
. Archived from
the original
on 20 July 2023.
- ^
Wikstrom, Cajsa (9 February 2011).
"Syria: 'A kingdom of silence'
"
.
Al Jazeera
. Archived from
the original
on 29 May 2023.
- ^
Kassam, Becker, Kamal, Maria (16 May 2023).
"Syrians of today, Germans of tomorrow: the effect of initial placement on the political interest of Syrian refugees in Germany"
.
Frontiers in Political Science
.
5
: 3.
doi
:
10.3389/fpos.2023.1100446
.
{{
cite journal
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
a
b
Karam Shaar; Samy Akil (28 January 2021).
"Inside Syria's Clapping Chamber: Dynamics of the 2020 Parliamentary Elections"
.
Middle East Institute
. Retrieved
29 April
2021
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
| This section needs to be
updated
.
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
(
November 2022
)
|
- Raymond Hinnebusch:
The Political Economy of Economic Liberalization in Syria
, in: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 27 - Nr. 3, August 1995, S. 305?320.
- Raymond Hinnebusch:
State, Civil Society, and Political Change in Syria
, in: A.R. Norton: Civil Society in the Middle East, Leiden, 1995.
- Ismail Kupeli:
Ibn Khaldun und das politische System Syriens - Eine Gegenuberstellung
, Munchen, 2007,
ISBN
978-3-638-75458-3
(critical approach with reference to the political theory of
Ibn Khaldun
)
- Moshe Ma’oz / Avner Yaniv (Ed.):
Syria under Assad
, London, 1986.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Sources describing Syria as a totalitarian state:
- Khamis, B. Gold, Vaughn, Sahar, Paul, Katherine (2013). "22. Propaganda in Egypt and Syria's "Cyberwars": Contexts, Actors, Tools, and Tactics". In Auerbach, Castronovo, Jonathan, Russ (ed.).
The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies
. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 422.
ISBN
978-0-19-976441-9
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- Wieland, Carsten (2018). "6: De-neutralizing Aid: All Roads Lead to Damascus".
Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid Through Violent Regimes
. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 68.
ISBN
978-0-7556-4138-3
.
- Meininghaus, Esther (2016). "Introduction".
Creating Consent in Ba'thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State
. I. B. Tauris. pp. 1?33.
ISBN
978-1-78453-115-7
.
- Sadiki, Larbi; Fares, Obaida (2014). "12: The Arab Spring Comes to Syria: Internal Mobilization for Democratic Change, Militarization and Internationalization".
Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization
. Routledge. p. 147.
ISBN
978-0-415-52391-2
.
External links
[
edit
]