Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chapter Abstracts
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction. The Arab Lefts from the 1950s to the 1970s: Transnational Entanglements and Shifting Legacies
- 1 Unforgettable Radicalism: Al-Ittihad ’s Words in Hebrew Novels
- 2 Beating Hearts: Arab Marxism, Anti-colonialism and Literatures of Coexistence in Palestine/Israel, 1944–60
- 3 Free Elections versus Authoritarian Practices: What Baathists Fought For
- 4 Dealing with Dissent: Khalid Bakdash and the Schisms of Arab Communism
- 5 A Patriotic Internationalism: The Tunisian Communist Party’s Commitment to the Liberation of Peoples
- 6 Internationalist Nationalism: Making Algeria at World Youth Festivals, 1947–62
- 7 Travelling The orist: Mehdi Ben Barka and Morocco from Anti-colonial Nationalism to the Tricontinental
- 8 Marxism or Left-Wing Nationalism? The New Left in Egypt in the 1970s
- 9 Non-Zionists, Anti-Zionists, Revolutionaries: Palestinian Appraisals of the Israeli Left, 1967–73
- 10 ‘Dismount the horse to pick some roses’: Militant Enquiry in Lebanese New Left Experiments, 1968–73
- 11 The ‘Che Guevara of the Middle East’: Remembering Khalid Ahmad Zaki’s Revolutionary Struggle in Iraq’s Southern Marshes
- 12 Crisis and Critique: The Transformation of the Arab Radical Tradition between the 1960s and the 1980s
- 13 The Afterlives of Husayn Muruwwa: The Killing of an Intellectual, 1987
- Afterword. The Arab Left: From Rumbling Ocean to Revolutionary Gulf
- Index
3 - Free Elections versus Authoritarian Practices: What Baathists Fought For
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chapter Abstracts
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction. The Arab Lefts from the 1950s to the 1970s: Transnational Entanglements and Shifting Legacies
- 1 Unforgettable Radicalism: Al-Ittihad ’s Words in Hebrew Novels
- 2 Beating Hearts: Arab Marxism, Anti-colonialism and Literatures of Coexistence in Palestine/Israel, 1944–60
- 3 Free Elections versus Authoritarian Practices: What Baathists Fought For
- 4 Dealing with Dissent: Khalid Bakdash and the Schisms of Arab Communism
- 5 A Patriotic Internationalism: The Tunisian Communist Party’s Commitment to the Liberation of Peoples
- 6 Internationalist Nationalism: Making Algeria at World Youth Festivals, 1947–62
- 7 Travelling The orist: Mehdi Ben Barka and Morocco from Anti-colonial Nationalism to the Tricontinental
- 8 Marxism or Left-Wing Nationalism? The New Left in Egypt in the 1970s
- 9 Non-Zionists, Anti-Zionists, Revolutionaries: Palestinian Appraisals of the Israeli Left, 1967–73
- 10 ‘Dismount the horse to pick some roses’: Militant Enquiry in Lebanese New Left Experiments, 1968–73
- 11 The ‘Che Guevara of the Middle East’: Remembering Khalid Ahmad Zaki’s Revolutionary Struggle in Iraq’s Southern Marshes
- 12 Crisis and Critique: The Transformation of the Arab Radical Tradition between the 1960s and the 1980s
- 13 The Afterlives of Husayn Muruwwa: The Killing of an Intellectual, 1987
- Afterword. The Arab Left: From Rumbling Ocean to Revolutionary Gulf
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The Baath Party has become the very symbol of the authoritarian regime in the Middle East. Hafez al-Asad in Syria and Saddam Hussein in Iraq exemplified the harsh dictatorship that dominated the two countries under Baathistrule. However, the premise of the Baathist ideology and the ideals put forward by its founders, such as Michel ‘Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar, differed in many ways from this reality. On the contrary, with a strong commitment to nationalism, ‘Aflaq and Bitar ascribed a high value to freedom and committed themselves to defending a true constitutional system in order to restore the Arab Nation. The present chapter aims to understand how and why the Baathist leaders shifted from this liberal background to take a more authoritarian approach to power.
In this chapter, while considering political evolutions in Syria between 1946 and 1955, I will argue that representations, values and political involvement are deeply linked. Politicians as ordinary people frame the reality that defines their actions. They nevertheless face a dilemma when what they believe to be right and good is in conflict either with other interests or, more often, with another point to which they ascribe a high value. Staging a revolution, defending the nation, placing the economy under state control, creating foreign alliances, promoting free elections are all examples of these ‘values’. The present chapter aims to demonstrate that politicians prioritise their actions according to certain values, and consequently, each value is assigned a certain position in a hierarchy. This hierarchy changes depending on the context.
This approach addresses Lucien Febvre's concept, refined by Olivier Wieviorka, of ‘the hierarchy of values’. Febvre's original concept provided insight into the mental universe of Francois Rabelais. In this way, he was able to formulate the true meaning of the French author's atheism with reference to the cultural context of the sixteenth century. Wieviorka expanded the scope of the concept, pointing out the division created among French deputies in 1940 by the two key values of anti-Bolshevik and anti-German feeling.
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- The Arab LeftsHistories and Legacies, 1950s–1970s, pp. 57 - 76Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2020