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Ba'athism | |
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 The flag of the Baath Party, based on the flag of the Arab Revolt | |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Left-wing[2] |
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Ba'athism, also spelled Baathism,[a][3] is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation and development of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a socialist revolutionary government. The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Michel Aflaq (per the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party), Zaki al-Arsuzi (per the Syrian-led Ba'ath Party), and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. Ba'athist leaders of the modern era include the former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein, former president of Syria Hafez al-Assad, and his son, the current president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
The Ba'athist ideology advocates the "enlightenment of the Arabs" as well as the renaissance of their culture, values and society. It also advocates the creation of one-party states and rejects political pluralism in an unspecified length of time—the Ba'ath party theoretically uses an unspecified amount of time to develop an "enlightened" Arabic society. Ba'athism is based on the principles of secularism, Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, and Arab socialism.[4]
Ba'athism advocates socialist economic policies such as state ownership of natural resources, protectionism, distribution of lands to peasants, and planned economies. Although inspired by Western socialist thinkers, early Ba'athist theoreticians rejected the Marxist class-struggle concept, arguing that it hampers Arab unity. Ba'athists contend that socialism is the only way to develop modern Arab society and unite it.[5]
The two Ba'athist states which have existed (Iraq and Syria) prevented criticism of their ideology through authoritarian means of governance. Ba'athist Syria has been labelled "neo-Ba'athist" because the form of Ba'athism developed by the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath party is quite distinct from the Ba'athism which Aflaq and Bitar wrote about.
- ^ Ker-Lindsay, James (27 April 2023). "Is Syria No Longer a Pariah State?". World Politics Review. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023.
- ^ Ker-Lindsay, James (27 April 2023). "Is Syria No Longer a Pariah State?". World Politics Review. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023.
- ^ a b "Mawrid Reader". ejtaal.net. p. 80. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
- ^ "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). pp. 364–365. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
- ^ "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). pp. 364, 365. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
In practice, the economic doctrine of the Ba'th eschewed private enterprise and called for a state directed economy, much like the USSR. According to the basic documents of the party: the national wealth is the property of the state; the traditional distribution (i.e. the holding of most arable land by absentee landowners who leaded the land out to the peasants) is unjust and therefore it must be corrected; farming land should be allocated according to the capability to husband it; factories will be cooperative; trade will be controlled by the state.
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