ABSTRACT

Syria’s formal governmental structure provides for a highly centralized, strictly hierarchical political system that concentrates power in the presidency of the republic and the top leadership of the Ba’th Party. Syria’s most important political organization, the Arab Ba’th Socialist Party, was founded in the early 1940s by a trio of ardent Arab nationalists: Michel ‘Aflaq, Salah al-Din Bitar and Zaki Arsuzi. Government efforts to restrict the activities of radical organizations prevented the Ba’th from winning any seats in Syria’s first National Assembly elections in July 1947. Party officials openly applauded the nationalization program that was implemented by the Ba’thi regime in January 1965. Parliamentary elections in May 1990 signalled a subtle shift in the role of the People’s Assembly in Syrian politics. Evidence of heightened popular political initiative in Syrian politics appeared in different arenas as the 1990s opened. Liberal-democratic governance is predicated upon precisely the opposite conditions: certainty regarding procedures and uncertainty about outcomes.