Syrian political system

The political system of Syria is characterized by a Leninist- influenced system of government and the authoritarian leadership style of the Alawite President Bashar al-Assad , and has the characteristics of a dictatorship .

In terms of the form of government, Syria is a semi-presidential people 's republic and has a bloc party system as a form of government, which is dominated by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party as a unitary party. In nominal terms, Syria is a Democratic Socialist Republic .

Syria has been at war with Israel since 1948 and a state of emergency has ruled the country since 1963, i.e. since the Ba'ath Party took power by force . The small, unorthodox religious community of the Muslim Alawites is disproportionately represented in all management positions (posts in the military, state and business).

The Syrian intelligence services are the General Security Division and the Political Security Division (both belong to the Ministry of the Interior ), the Military Reconnaissance Division and the Air Force Intelligence Service , considered the most powerful of the four intelligence services. They report directly to the President of Syria and have overlapping tasks so that the government is independent of each individual service. In fact, the services compete for budget and staff. Within each department, different department heads report directly to the President, bypassing their direct superiors.

Constitution

In 1973 a new constitution was passed in which the position of president was further upgraded. Furthermore, the Sharia would henceforth be one of the main bases of legislation (it was previously referred to as a simple source for the legislature). This followed Assad's failed attempt to create a constitution in Syria without any religious elements, i.e. H. to be introduced in a strictly secular manner, which met with great resistance from the population. The new draft constitution stipulates that the president must be a Muslim in order to calm the majority of the Sunnis , for whom the Alawites , including al-Assad, had become too powerful.

According to the Syrian constitution of 1973, leadership positions within the state and society were reserved for the Baath Arab Socialist Party .

The country's constitution does not formally designate Islam as the state religion, but it does require that the President of Syria must be a Muslim. This President is officially endowed with very far-reaching powers.

In February / 2012 a draft of a new constitution was submitted to a referendum . Islamic jurisprudence (Alfiqh) is to become a main source of legislation. The paragraph leaves open which laws are now taken from the Koran and the Sunna. Islamist opposition members would also like to push this through; which again can restrict the freedom of the citizens with the Islamic legislation and will cut the rights of Christians considerably. Furthermore, according to this draft, only one Muslim can become president. The monopoly of the Ba'ath Party and socialism as a form of government have been abandoned, but the president continues to enjoy extensive powers.

Government system

Government leaders

Office	person	Commencement
president	Bashar al-Assad	July 17, 2000
Prime Minister	Emad Chamis	June 22, 2016
President of Parliament	Hammouda Sabbagh	28 Sep 2016
Foreign minister	Walid al-Muallim	Feb 11, 2006

The President of the Syrian Arab Republic has very extensive powers. The President, who must be confirmed by the people every seven years, is the highest executive body and at the same time General Secretary of the Ba'ath Party and leader of the National Progressive Front ( French Front national progressiste , abbreviation FNP). Only he has the right to appoint ministers, declare war, declare a state of emergency and make laws - which must be ratified by the Council of the People while the state of emergency does not apply. He can also grant amnesty, amend the constitution, and convene state officials and military personnel.

Long-time President Hafiz al-Assad was confirmed in office five times without opposing candidates in plebiscites. The current President of the Republic, Bashar al-Assad , who is also his son, was elected to office in a referendum on July 17, 2000 - this time also without opposing candidates. On May 27, 2007, it was re-confirmed with allegedly 97% of the vote. In the election on June 3, 2014 , he received 88.7% of the vote.

Together with the National Progressive Front (FNP), the President decides on matters of war and peace and approves the state's five-year economic plans . The FNP acts and serves at the same time as a forum in which the economic policy of the country is debated and the political orientation of the entire state is determined. Despite this, due to the strong dominance of the Baath party, the NPF traditionally has only very little room for maneuver.

Parliament and parties

The Syrian People's Council ( Majlis asch-Schaʿb ) has a total of 250 members who are elected from 15 multi-seat constituencies for a period of 4 years. The Council of the People cannot introduce bills; it can only criticize and then modify the laws passed by the President.

Despite the bloc parties, Syria is de facto a one -party state dominated by the Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party. Of the 250 seats, 167 are automatically reserved for the Nationale Progressive Front ( French Front national progressiste , abbreviation FNP), which was founded in 1972. Of these, 134 are automatically members of the Ba'ath Party. Other political parties within the FNP are not allowed to run election campaigns for support within the army or at universities, as these are "reserved exclusively for the Ba'ath Party".

In addition to the Ba'ath Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Syrian Communist Party traditionally played and still play a certain, more or less independent role, albeit subordinate to the Ba'ath Party. Since they - like the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) and a few other small splinter groups that emerged from the Baath Party or ASU - are legally permitted as FNP partners, some of the opposition platforms and factions that have emerged within these coalition parties can at least act semi-legally .

The Ba'ath Party propagates socialism and secular pan-Arabism . Although the Ba'ath party tries to create a national rather than ethnic identity in Syria, religious and regional loyalties as well as clan and tribal structures have so far persisted.

Jurisprudence

According to Article 3, the legal basis of the constitution is Islamic jurisprudence , which, unlike Sharia, is not seen as a God-given right, but as man-made and therefore changeable.

The legal system in Syria is a mixed amalgam of Turkish , French and Islamic laws, with three levels of courts: the courts of first instance, appeals courts and the constitutional court, the highest tribunal. In addition, religious courts deal with questions of personal law and family law . The applicable marriage and family law in Syria is determined by religious affiliation. The Sharia applies to Muslims. For Catholic Christians, the codex iuris canonici is authoritative.

administration

Originally, Syria - when it was still part of the French League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon - was structured according to the respective ethnic and religious settlement areas. So there was a state of the Alawites ( French État des Alaouites ) in the west and a state of the Druze ( French État du Djebel druze ) in the south. Since the administrative reform in 1987, Syria has been divided into 14 governorates ( muḥāfaẓāt , singular: muḥāfaẓa ):

Damascus Rif Dimashq al-Quneitra Darʿā as-Suwaida Homs Tartus

Latakia Hama Idlib Aleppo ar-Raqqa Deir ez-Zor al-Hasakah

The district of Quneitra (Kuneitra) in the Golan Heights has been largely occupied by Israel since 1967 and has been administered by Israel since 1981 as part of the northern district . The region around Iskenderun (Alexandretta), to the inclusion in Turkey Sanjak of Alexandretta , belongs since 1939 with Turkey, but is also claimed by Syria.

See also

• Kurdistan-Syria Democratic Party
• Christianity in Syria

literature

• Ismail Küpeli: Ibn Khaldun and the Syrian Political System - A Comparison , Munich, 2007.
• Raymond Hinnebusch: State, Civil Society, and Political Change in Syria , in: AR Norton: Civil Society in the Middle East , Leiden, 1995.
• Raymond Hinnebusch: The Political Economy of Economic Liberalization in Syria , in: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Vol. 27 - No. 3, August 1995, pp. 305-320.
• Moshe Ma'oz / Avner Yaniv (Ed.): Syria under Assad , London, 1986.
• Nikolaos van Dam: The Struggle for Power in Syria , London, 1981.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Syria (05/07)
2. ↑ Foreign Office : Domestic Policy and Religion in Syria ( Memento from October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Approved in Popular Referendum on February 27, 2012 
4. ^ Wright, Dreams and Shadows , (2008), p. 261, English
5. ^ Wright, Dreams and Shadow, 2008, English, p. 224
6. ^ Seale, Patrick, Asad, the Struggle for the Middle East , University of California Press, 1989, p. 176
7. ↑ European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity : Syrian Arab Republic ( Memento of the original dated February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ^ Constitution of Syria 2012: legal text
9. ↑ Preliminary to Art. 13ff. EG in Staudinger, commentary on the BGB