Politics of Syria

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This article is about recent and past political developments in Syria. For the Syrian government, see Government of Syria.

Politics of Syria

سياسة سوريا
Speaker of the People's Council
Executive branch
Head of State
TitlePresident
CurrentlyBashar al-Assad
AppointerDirect popular vote
Head of Government
TitlePrime Minister
CurrentlyHussein Arnous
AppointerPresident
Cabinet
NameCouncil of Ministers
Current cabinetHussein Arnous government
LeaderPrime Minister
Deputy leaderDeputy Prime Minister
AppointerPresident
Ministries30
Judicial branch
NameJudiciary of Syria
Supreme Constitutional Court
Chief judgeMohammad Jihad al-Laham
Politics of Syria

Arab League Member State of the Arab League

Constitution
  • Preamble and Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
Human rights
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
Subdivisions
Elections
Foreign relations

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Politics in the

1970 coup d'état and his family has dominated the country's politics ever since.[5][6][7]

Until the early stages of 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

Assad government as one of the two regimes to get the lowest possible score (1/100).[14][15]

Background

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.

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

Further information:
Ba'ath Party (Syrian-led faction)

The Ba'ath platform is proclaimed succinctly in the

alawite, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, which was dissolved in 1966 following the 1966 Syrian coup d'état 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

Leadership in Damascus:

Main office-holders
Office Name Party Since
President
 Bashar al-Assad
Ba'ath Party
 17 July 2000
Prime Minister
 Hussein Arnous
Ba'ath Party
 11 June 2020

Leadership of the Syrian opposition in Idlib:

Main office-holders
Office Name Party Since
President Salem al-Meslet Independent 12 July 2021
Prime Minister Abdurrahman Mustafa Independent 30 June 2019

The previous

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 (
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

ethnic
identity, the issues of ethnic, religious, and regional allegiances still remain important in Syria.

Political system of the

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

All registered political parties in Syria are participants within 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]

Party or allianceSeats
Arabic Democratic Union Party
1
Democratic Socialist Unionist Party1
Independents67
Total250
Source: Middle East Institute[28]

References

  1. ^ "Syria: Government". CIA World Factbook. Archived from the original on 3 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Syrian Arab Republic: Constitution, 2012". refworld. 26 February 2021. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Freedom in the World 2023: Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023.
  4. ^ Lucas, Scott (25 February 2021). "How Assad Regime Tightened Syria's One-Party Rule". EA Worldview. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021.
  5. ^ a b "The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". cia.gov. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  6. ^ Syria 101: 4 attributes of Assad's authoritarian regime - Ariel Zirulnick
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Syria's state of emergency, Al Jazeera, 17 April 2011.
  9. ^ Article 8 of the Constitution
  10. ^ "Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022.
  11. ^ "Syria 2022 Human Rights Report" (PDF). United States Department of State. pp. 70, 71. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2023.
  12. ISBN 978-0-415-61773-4
    .
  13. ^ a b "Syria". Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  14. ^ "Freedom in the World 2023: Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023.
  15. ^ Freedom in the World: 2023 (PDF) (Report) (50th anniversary ed.). March 2023. p. 31 – via Freedom House.
  16. ^ "Syria in Crisis: The Damascus Spring". Carnegie Middle East Center. 1 April 2012. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022.
  17. ISBN 978-0-367-60786-9
    .
  18. ^ 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
  19. ^ "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.
  20. ^ "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.
  21. ^ "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.
  22. ^ Wright, Dreams and Shadows, (2008), p.261
  23. ISBN 978-0-367-60786-9
    .
  24. ISBN 978-1-8386-0640-4
    .
  25. ^ Yacoub Oweis, Khaled (16 May 2007). "Syria's top dissident urges Assad". Reuters. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023.
  26. ^ Wikstrom, Cajsa (9 February 2011). "Syria: 'A kingdom of silence'". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023.
  27. doi:10.3389/fpos.2023.1100446.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  28. ^ 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

  • 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 Küpeli: Ibn Khaldun und das politische System Syriens - Eine Gegenüberstellung, München, 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

  1. ^ Sources describing Syria as a totalitarian state:

External links
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