ABSTRACT
Research on Syria has evolved in three fairly distinct perspectives. The first, and so far most elaborate, has focused primarily on politics and society within the Syrian state. Scholars in this area have concerned themselves primarily with the power struggle that has dominated Syrian politics since the inception of an independent Syrian polity. What were the traits of the generation of leaders who received the reins of power from the French? What were the causes and the consequences of the succession of coups d’état which took place between 1949 and 1963? What were the social bases of the new political and military elites which took over from the ancien régime during the 1950s? What were the emerging patterns of relations between the rising military, on the one hand, and the politicians, on the other hand? What were the social, ideological and personal origins of the power struggle among the Sunnis, the Alawis, the Druzes and the Christians and within each one of these religiously distinct communities, both before and after the advent of the Ba’ath? What were the socio-economic and political relations between town and country and among Syria’s competing regional centres? Finally, and perhaps most important of all, has a genuine political community emerged in the Syrian state? Or has Syria remained a largely artificial administrative edifice, hopelessly caught between the magnetic attraction of Pan-Arabism, on the one hand, and the even more vigorous attraction of local, particularist loyalties, on the other hand? 1
