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Ba'athism البعثية | |
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 The flag of the Ba'ath Party, based on the flag of the Arab Revolt | |
| Founder | Michel Aflaq |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Left-wing[14] |
| Colors | Red, green, black, white (Pan-Arab colors) |
| Slogan | "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" "A single Arab nation with an eternal mission"[15] |
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| Ba'athism |
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Ba'athism, also spelled Baathism,[a] is an Arab nationalist ideology which advocates the establishment of a unified Arab state through the rule of a Ba'athist vanguard party operating under a revolutionary socialist framework. 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, and former presidents of Syria Hafez al-Assad and his son 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" Arab society. Ba'athism is founded on the principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, and Arab socialism, as exemplified by its slogan "Unity, Freedom, Socialism".[17]
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.[18]
The last two Ba'athist states which existed—Iraq and Syria—attempted to prevent criticism of their ideology through authoritarian means of governance.[19] Ba'athist Syria's state ideology was neo-Ba'athism, a form of Ba'athist ideology developed by the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath party, which was quite distinct from the Ba'athism which Aflaq and Bitar wrote about.
- ^ Milton-Edwards, Beverley (2005). Islamic Fundamentalism Since 1945. Psychology Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-415-30173-2.
Ba'athism as an expression of Arab nationalist identity had little patience for a political discourse limited by an attachment to a single faith system. For the founders of Ba'athism, the principles of secular, nationalist socialism would unite all Arabs irrespective of religion, nation or class.
- ^ Matthews, Ken (2003). The Gulf Conflict and International Relations. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-134-90458-7.
Ba'athism is a mixture of pan-Arabism and Arab socialism. Its ideology laid down by the Ba'ath founder, Michel Aflaq, calls on a number of potentially incompatible and conflicting ideas. It is pan-Arabist in its aspirations yet appeals to individual nationalisms. It assumes the existence of an Arab nation and calls for the establishment of a single Arab state, but at the same time is used by its leaders in Syria and Iraq as a powerful mechanism for establishing the power and legitimacy of those states. It appeals to Islamic religious principles and the traditions of Arab history whilst at the same time aspiring to create a secular modernity, which it recognises as the basis of western prosperity and power. The socialist dimension of Ba'athism is reflected in its claim to eliminate the conflict between the different ethnic groups found in Middle Eastern countries, thus denying the monopoly of power to any one group. In practice, particularly under the rule of Saddam Hussein, it has on the contrary resulted in the concentration of power into the hands of a small clique, many of the members of which have family connections. From an international perspective Ba'athism's socialist aspirations entail the rejection of liberal economics based upon capitalistic principles and, at least in Cold War terms, it saw the Soviet Union as its natural major supporter in its stand against what it conceives to be western imperialist influence and intervention in the Middle East.
- ^ Yassine-Hamdan, Nahla; Pearson, Frederic (2014). Arab Approaches to Conflict Resolution: Mediation, Negotiation and Settlement of Political Disputes. Routledge. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-136-65866-2.
The Ba'ath ideology was comprised of rigid systems of beliefs, with the idea of Arab unity as the main core. Ba'athists believed that they should use all means, including coercive measures, to achieve this goal.
- ^ Matthews, Ken (2003). The Gulf Conflict and International Relations. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-134-90458-7.
Ba'athism is a revolutionary philosophy whose technique has been to foster and lead revolution from below—the very fragmentation of many Islamic societies precludes sufficient solidarity at the grass-roots to make a general uprising a viable strategy. The method is to capture power by whatever means possible and institute the revolution from above.
- ^ Matar, Linda; Kadri, Ali (2018). Syria: From National Independence to Proxy War. Springer. p. 213. ISBN 978-3-319-98458-2.
Ba'athism emerged as part of a global efflorescence of populist, socialist, and other anti-systemic movements encompassing the 1917–1973 wave of national revolts which went by various names, including the anticolonial movements or the emergence of the South... Forces of socialism, communism, and left-wing Ba'athism were increasingly setting the agenda within Syria.
- ^ Humphreys, R. Stephen (2005). Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age. University of California Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-520-93258-6.
The Baath was the most ardently Pan-Arabist movement of all; its program combined a secularist worldview, populism, a vaguely Marxist socioeconomic program, and a visionary dream of a single Arab nation stretching from Morocco to Iraq.
- ^ Dawisha, Adeed I. (1980). Syria and the Lebanese Crisis. Springer. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-349-05371-1.
For the Party to succeed in achieving these aims, Aflaq insisted that the Baath had to be nationalist, populist, socialist and revolutionary. The radicalism of the Baath later became more manifest as a result of the Sixth National Congress held in Damascus in October 1963. The Congress declared the peasants and workers to constitute the base not only of the 'Arab revolution' but also, and more significantly, of the Party itself. Accordingly, only peasants, workers and revolutionary intellectuals of civilian or military background could accomplish the socialist revolution. Moreover, the Congress insisted on the need for workers' control of the means of production, and for an agrarian reform where collective farms would be governed by peasants.
- ^ Olson, Wm J. (2021). U.S. Strategic Interests In The Gulf Region. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-00995-8.
The traditional Gulf states now represented by the GCC have accordingly grave concerns for the security of their monarchist regimes from republican radicalism on the left as represented by Iraqi Ba'athism or South Yemeni Marxism or republican radicalism on the right as represented by religious fundamentalism.
- ^ Graz, Liesl (1992). The Turbulent Gulf. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-85043-557-0.
Ba'athism is not democracy, but it is indissolubly linked to a republican form of government.
- ^ Milton-Edwards, Beverley (2005). Islamic Fundamentalism Since 1945. Psychology Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-415-30173-2.
Ba'athism as an expression of Arab nationalist identity had little patience for a political discourse limited by an attachment to a single faith system. For the founders of Ba'athism, the principles of secular, nationalist socialism would unite all Arabs irrespective of religion, nation or class.
- ^ Bieber, Florian (2020). Debating Nationalism: The Global Spread of Nations. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-350-09810-7.
Ba'athism and most other Arab nationalist movements drew on the widespread anti-colonial themes as well as on hostility toward Israel, which became associated with colonialism in pan-Arab discourse.
- ^ Andrews, John (2010). The Economist Book of Isms. Profile Books. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-84765-179-2.
Ba'athism espouses, at least in theory, non-alignment, pan-Arabism and anti-imperialism (in practice, Ba'athists aligned themselves with the Soviet Union during the cold war).
- ^ Bieber, Florian (2020). Debating Nationalism: The Global Spread of Nations. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-350-09810-7.
Ba'athism and most other Arab nationalist movements drew on the widespread anti-colonial themes as well as on hostility toward Israel, which became associated with colonialism in pan-Arab discourse.
- ^ Devlin 1975, p. 22.
- ^ Bengio, Ofra (1998). Saddam's Word: Political Discourse in Iraq (Paperback). Oxford, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Oxford University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-19-511439-3. "The name Ba'th at once evokes the party's central slogans: "A single Arab nation with an eternal mission" and "Unity, freedom, socialism." The first slogan echoes several verses of the Qur'an where the words umma wahida (one nation) appear. Verse 209 of the sura al-Baqara, for instance, reads: "The people were one nation; then God sent forth the Prophets, good tidings to bear and warning." The whole party phrase, with its internal rhyme in Arabic, elicits a longing for completeness, a yearning for a messanic transformatin. The glorious past of the Arabs is made the source and aim fo emulation. Arsuzi wrote: "The Arabs conquered the world in order to civilize itt and for that vision they sacrificed their lives... They spread their rule from the Chinese Wall to the Atlantic Ocean and from the center of Europe to the center of Africa... One caliph, one law, one official language."
- ^ a b "Mawrid Reader". ejtaal.net. p. 80. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
- ^ Bar, Shmuel (2006). "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.
- ^ Bar, Shmuel (2006). "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.
- ^ Sammy, Ketz (15 December 2024). "Once a leading force, Assad's Baath party wiped off Mideast politics: analysts". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
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