Authoritarianism in Syria

For almost forty years Syria has been ruled by a populist authoritarian regime under the Ba'th Party, led since 1970 by President Hafiz al-Asad. The durability and resilience of this regime is a striking contrast to the instability and intense social...

Steven Heydemann is Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.

The argument is tightly reasoned and persuasive; the theoretical framework is marvelously conceptualized and executed. Along the way, the book provides, among many other insights, a highly insightful interpretation of the rise of the Ba'th party... Heydemann's book is a first-rate contribution about the 1946–1970 period against which subsequent works will need to be measured. His analysis of how political continuity proceeded across a number of decades that witnessed often severe challenges to the country's leadership goes far beyond the unidimensional caricatures of brutal suppression that often mark less sophisticated studies of Syria.

Fred H. Lawson:

Authoritarianism in Syria offers an accessible overview of major trends in the political economy of Syria during the two decades following the Second World War. The book presents useful data regarding the growth of local industry, the expansion of the central administration and the activities of the country's labor movement throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

Volker Perthes, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs):

I read Authoritarianism in Syria with great interest. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of state-building processes in third-world states in general and of the political-economic development of Syria in particular.

Ian S. Lustick, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania:

Heydemann's book is an outstanding and richly rewarding study of reciprocally constitutive relations between politics and social forces in Syria. By tracing the mechanisms of Ba'th rule, Heydemann explains both the radicalization and stability of Syrian political life. Deploying classic techniques of institutional analysis, he also offers students of comparative political development an unprecedentedly convincing model of both the emergence and operation of populist authoritarianism.

Joel Migdal, University of Washington:

Even as authoritarianism crumbled or was transformed in the 1990s, the Syrian state dodged the capitalist bullet. Steven Heydemann deftly employs a unique brand of historical political economy to show how.