سويرة ثورة من فوقSuriyah: Thawrah min Fawq

Syria, The Revolution Form Above (The Contemporary Middle East', by Raymond Hinnebusch, here translated to Arabic. This study examines the development of hte Syrian state as it has emerged inder thirty-five years of military-Ba'thist rule and, particularly, under president Hafiz al-Asad.

It analyzes the way in which the fragility of the post-independence state, unable to contain rising nationalist struggle and class conflict, opened the way to the Ba'th's "revolution from above" transformed Syria's socio-political terrain. the mixed strategy of power concentration under Asad is then examined and the way in which the creation of a presidential monarchy buttressed by trusted kin and clients commanding instruments of repression was combined with the creation of Lenisit-like political organization incorporating a rural constituency. Susequent state-society realtions, including the rise of a new class, Islamic rebellion, the survival of civil society and Asad's resort to political decompression as a substitute for democratization are then surveyed. The author moves on to assess the political economy of economic development, showing how agrarian reform, industrialization and economic liberlization created a more equitable and diverse but fundamentally flawed state-dominated economy.