Editing Ba'ath Party (section)

==Ideology and policy==
{{Further|Ba'athism}}
===Foundational Ba'ath: 1947–1960===
====Arab Nation====
[[File:Ba'ath Constitution.jpg|thumb|right|Part of the 1947 Ba'ath Party constitution]]
For more than 2 decades, [[Michel Aflaq]]'s essay compilation titled "''Fi Sabil al-Ba'ath''" (translation: "The Road to Renaissance") was the primary ideological book of the Ba'ath party. The work was published by Aflaq in 1940.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Michel Aflaq|url=https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/michel-aflaq|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021035254/https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/michel-aflaq|archive-date=21 October 2020|website=harvard.edu}}</ref> From its very beginning, the party was a manifestation of [[Arab nationalism|Arab nationalist]] thought, with the party describing itself as "The Party of Arab Unity".{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=134}}  The pan-Arab tendencies of the party's predecessor, the [[Arab Ba'ath Movement]], were strengthened in 1945–1947 by recruiting members from [[Zaki al-Arsuzi]]'s Arab Ba'ath.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=135}} The first article of the party's constitution stated that: "...the Arabs form one nation. This nation has the natural right to live in a single state. [As such,] the Arab fatherland constitutes an indivisible political and economic unit. No Arab can live apart from the others."{{sfn|Claessen|2010|p=24}}

To express his heartfelt belief in Arab nationalism, Aflaq coined the term "one Arab nation with an eternal message" ({{langx|ar|ummah arabiyyah wahidah thatu risalah khalidah}}).{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=30}} Party ideology, and Ba'athism in general, was not based on concepts such as the purity of the Arab race or ethnic chauvinism, but on idealistic concepts borrowed from the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment era]].{{sfn|Seale|1990|pp=30–31}} According to author Tabitha Petran, the basic tenet of the party's ideology was:{{sfn|Moaddel|2005|p=229}}

<blockquote>...that the Arab nation is a permanent entity in history. The Arab nation is considered, philosophically speaking, not as a social and economic formation, but as a transcendent fact inspiring different forms, one of its highest contributions taking the form of [[Islam]]. It was not Islam that modeled the peoples of Arabia, the [[Fertile Crescent]], and [[North Africa]], equipping them with Islamic values, especially the Arabic language and the Arabic culture, but the Arab nation which created Islam. This conception of the Arab nation implicitly advantages the Arab contribution to history. On the other hand, Arab decadence can be overcome through a purifying and spiritual action, not religious but moral.{{sfn|Moaddel|2005|p=229}}</blockquote>

====Peasant and workers====
{{One source|date=December 2024}}
The early Ba'ath gave little attention to the problems facing the peasants and workers.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} As the historian [[Hanna Batatu]] notes, "Aflaq was basically urban in outlook. The peasants never constituted an object of his special concern. In his writing there is scarcely an expression of concentrated interest in the country's husbandsmen."{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} While peasants and the issues they faced are mentioned in some of Aflaq's work, there was scarcely any depth given to them.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Aflaq never expressed explicit enmity towards traditional landowners.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Issues such as these would only gain prominence when [[Akram al-Hourani]] became a leading party figure and when the "transitional Ba'athists" took power.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Of the four members in the 1st Executive Committee, [[Wahib al-Ghanim]] was the only one who paid much attention to the problems of peasants and workers,{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} as the other members (Aflaq, [[Salah al-Din al-Bitar]] and Jalil al-Sayyide) had a [[middle class]] upbringing and upheld middle-class values.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|pp=134–136}} 

The early party organization never cultivated a deep following in rural areas.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} In fact, at the party's founding congress, only one peasant and one worker were present among the 217 delegates.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Most of the delegates were either school teacher or students attending universities.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} When [[Akram al-Hourani]]'s [[Arab Socialist Movement|Arab Socialist Party]] (ASP) merged with the Ba'ath Party, the majority of ASP members of peasant origin did not join the Ba'ath Party, instead becoming personal followers of Hawrani.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} However, the majority of Ba'ath members were of rural upbringing.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} The "Transitional Ba'ath", which grew out of the dissolution of the Syrian Regional Branch (1958) and the Military Committee, was more rural in outlook, policy and ideology.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|pp=144–145}}

===="Unity, Freedom, Socialism"====
{{Main|Waḥda, Ḥurriyya, Ishtirākiyya}}
The slogan "[[Waḥda, Ḥurriyya, Ishtirākiyya|Unity, Freedom, Socialism]]" is the key tenet in Ba'athist thought.{{sfn|Salem|1994|p=62}} Unity stood for the creation of an independent, strong Arab Nation.{{sfn|Salem|1994|p=65-66}} [[Liberty]] did not mean [[liberal democracy]], but rather freedom from colonial oppression and [[freedom of speech]] and [[freedom of thought|thought]].{{sfn|Salem|1994|pp=66–68}} Aflaq believed that the Ba'ath Party, at least in theory, would rule, and guide the people, in a transitional period of time without consulting the people,{{sfn|Salem|1994|pp=67–68]}} however he did support intra-party democracy.{{sfn|Salem|1994|p=67}} The last tenet, 'socialism', did not mean socialism as defined in the West, but rather a unique form of [[Arab socialism]].{{sfn|Salem|1994|pp=69–70}} According to Ba'athist thought, socialism had originated under the rule of the Prophet [[Muhammad]].{{sfn|Salem|1994|pp=69–70}} The original interpretation of Arab socialism did not answer questions regarding economic equality or how much [[State socialism|state control]] was necessary, but instead focused on freeing the Arab Nation and its people from colonization and oppression in general.{{sfn|Salem|1994|pp=69–70}}

===Transitional Ba'ath: 1960–1964===
====Regionalists versus nationalists====
After the failure of the [[United Arab Republic]] (UAR), a union of Egypt and Syria, the Ba'ath Party was divided into two main factions, the Regionalists ({{langx|ar|Qutriyyun}}) and the Nationalists (pan-Arab) ({{langx|ar|Qawmiyyun}}).{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=36}} When the union with Egypt collapsed, the Ba'ath Party was put in a difficult position, as the party still sought Arab unity but did not oppose the UAR's dissolution and did not want to seek another union with Egypt under [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]'s rule.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=36}} However, being the unionist party that it was, the party's leaders could not state their position on this issue.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=36}} The end result was that the pro-Arab nationalists within the Ba'ath Party became committed [[Nasserism|Nasserists]], while the more moderate Arab nationalists founded the pro-Nasserite [[Socialist Unionist Party (Syria)|Socialist Unionists]] party.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=36}} A third group, led by people disenchanted with both Nasser and the union period, remained in the Ba'ath Party but stopped believing in the feasibility of pan-Arabism.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=36}} On 21 February 1962, the National Command issued a new policy regarding the pan-Arab project by first mentioning the successes and failures of the UAR, but ending the statement by calling for the reestablishment of the UAR as a decentralized [[Federation|federal union]] with Nasser's Egypt.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=37}} Many rank-and-file members opposed this change in policy, with many members being both disenchanted with pan-Arabism and Aflaq's continued party rule.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=37}}

When the Syrian Regional Branch was reestablished, the majority of its members in the provinces were of communal origins – Druze, Alawi, or Ismaili.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=166}} The provincial party members had not been told of the Syrian Regional Branch's dissolution, which in fact broke the communication line with provincial branches and the National Command.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=166}} While it is true that in 1962 the Regionalists supported the slogan adopted at the 5th National Congress, "the renewal of the union with Egypt while taking note of past mistakes", they treated such a slogan as a propaganda slogan rather than a feasible goal.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|pp=166–167}}

====The "Arab road to socialism"====
The disillusionment felt among party members on the pan-Arab project, led to the radicalization of the party's interpretation of socialism.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=41}} Yasin al-Hafiz, a former member of the [[Syrian Communist Party]], was an early frontrunner for the party's radicalization.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=41}} While he didn't oppose the pan-Arab project, he wanted to turn the concept of Arab socialism into a [[Scientific socialism|scientific]] and [[Revolutionary socialism|revolutionary socialist]] ideology which adapted [[Marxism]] to local conditions.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=41}} [[Jamal al-Atassi]], who had been a moderate socialist for most of his life, called for the renunciation of Arab socialism in 1963 and the adoption of a "virtually Marxist concept of socialism" by claiming that [[Class conflict|class struggle]] was the moving force in society.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|pp=41–42}}

[[Hammud al-Shufi]] became the leader of the party's Marxist faction during his short stint as Syrian Regional Secretary, literally the head of the Syrian Regional Organization.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=77}} Shufi was able, due to his position as head of the Organization Bureau of the [[Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Regional Command]], to recruit several Marxist or Marxist-leaning members to the top of the Syrian Regional party hierarchy.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|pp=77–78}} Radical socialists led by Ali Salih al-Sadi took control of the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Iraqi Regional Branch]] in 1963, which led to the official radicalization of the party's ideology.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|pp=82–83}}

The delegates at the 6th National Congress elected an Ideology Committee that was responsible for writing a charter about the party's ideology.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|pp=84–86}} The end result was the document ''Points of Departure''.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|pp=84–86}} The document, which was approved by the 6th National Congress, relegated Arab unity to a secondary role and gave socialism prominence.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|pp=84–86}} Marxist concepts were used interchangeably alongside Ba'athist ones; however, the document was reluctant in explicitly admitting that certain ideas were of Marxist origins.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=87}} The 6th National Congress borrowed key [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] tenets such as "[[People's democracy (Marxism–Leninism)|people's democracy]]" and emphasized the need of a [[Vanguardism|socialist vanguard]] in-order to:

<blockquote>"play the role of mediator and leader (even if it is in power) that acts to direct the journey of the masses towards the socialist future in a scientific way and in a democratic style".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ginat|first=Rami|date=April 2000|title=The Soviet Union and the Syrian Ba'th regime: From hesitation to Rapprochement|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=36|issue=2|pages=151–152|doi=10.1080/00263200008701312|jstor=4284075|s2cid=144922816|access-date=2023-02-21|archive-date=2023-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221122004/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

While the ''Points of Departure'' didn't create a break with the party's traditional ideology, it criticized the party's old guard for giving Arab unity primacy over socialism and their failure to turn Ba'athism into a comprehensive theory.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=87}} While the documents says Arab unity is progressive, the reason for it being important changed.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=88}} The document stated: "Arab unity is an indispensable basis for the construction of a [[Socialist economics|socialist economy]]."{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=88}} Aflaq also believed that Arab unity was only an intermediate goal, but it stood at the centre of classical Ba'athism.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=88}} In the ''Points of Departure'', despite not firmly stating it, the goal of creating a socialist society seemed to be both an immediate goal and the main goal of the party.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=88}}

The concept of Arab socialism, accused of being narrow-minded and nationalistic, was replaced with the "Arab road to socialism" concept.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=88}}  The ''Points of Departure'' criticized the classical Ba'athist view regarding [[Private property|private ownership]].{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=88}} Classical Ba'athists supported private ownership as a way to recruit into the party many [[Petite bourgeoisie|petty bourgeois]] elements.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=89}} The document called for [[nationalization]] of the commanding heights of the economy, the slow incorporation of the petty bourgeoisie into the socialist economy and the elimination of the [[Bourgeoisie|national bourgeoisie]] and its allied classes.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=89}} To safeguard the party from evolving into one supporting [[state capitalism]], the socialist economy would be controlled by a [[Vanguardism|vanguard party]] together with popular participation from the toiler masses.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=89}} Major policies in the "Arab road to socialism" included:

<blockquote>The [[nationalization]] of the major branches of the economy with the participation of the toiling masses in the management of the economy, and for the creation of [[Collective farming|collective farms]] to effect the [[revolution]] necessary for the peasants...the Congress stipulated that the changes be directed by a "revolutionary vanguard", the final aim being to establish a "popular democracy" that was to guarantee freedom to the classes which constitute the true people and ensure the country's rapid development. This regime was to center on the party, leading the popular organizations and councils and operating according to the principle of "[[democratic centralism]]"<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ginat|first=Rami|date=April 2000|title=The Soviet Union and the Syrian Ba'th regime: From hesitation to Rapprochement|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=36|issue=2|pages=157|doi=10.1080/00263200008701312|jstor=4284075|s2cid=144922816|access-date=2023-02-21|archive-date=2023-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221122004/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

====Stance on religion====
[[State atheism|Militant secularism]] was emphasized in the "''Declaration of Principles''" manifesto published by the Ba'ath party in 1960; which declared that the party's "educational policy" was to build a "new generation of Arabs that believe in the unity of the nation and the eternity of its mission".<ref>{{cite web|title=Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview|url=http://www.herzliyaconference.org/_Uploads/2590Bashars.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723214138/http://www.herzliyaconference.org/_Uploads/2590Bashars.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2011|accessdate=8 March 2013|pages=364–365}}</ref> The manifesto also stated that this envisaged Ba'athist generation would be "committed to [[Science|scientific thought]] freed from the shackles of superstition and backward customs" and replace religion with [[Arab nationalism]] as their belief system.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rubin|first=Barry|title=The Truth About Syria|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4039-8273-5|location=New York, NY|pages=38|chapter=2: The World's Most Unstable Country, 1946-1970}}</ref>

===Neo-Ba'ath: 1964–1966===
{{Further|Neo-Ba'athism}}
[[Neo-Ba'athism]] refers to the dramatic changes that manifested in Ba'athist ideology from 1960 to 1964, and the Military Committee's takeover of the Syrian Regional Branch and the National Command in the period 1964 to 1966.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|pp=170–175}} The 6th National Congress signified the takeover of the party by an anti-militarist left, which opposed both the traditional leaders in the National Command and the pragmatists in the Military Committee.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|pp=174–175}} When the anti-military left called for [[popular democracy]], no involvement of the military in national politics and popular struggle, the Military Committee became concerned.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=175}} In 1965, Ba'athist President [[Amin al-Hafiz]] imposed the socialist policies adopted in the 6th National Congress; fully nationalizing Syrian industry and vast segments of the private sector, and establishing a centralized [[Planned economy#Command economy|command economy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ginat|first=Rami|date=April 2000|title=The Soviet Union and the Syrian Ba'th regime: From hesitation to Rapprochement|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=36|issue=2|pages=157–158|doi=10.1080/00263200008701312|jstor=4284075|s2cid=144922816|access-date=2023-02-21|archive-date=2023-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221122004/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|url-status=live}}</ref>

By 1965 the anti-military leftists began to "spread rumors about the rightist character of the military junta [Military Committee] within the party and their subversive efforts to engulf it. There was not a single officer in the party who was not accused of conspiracy and reactionary tendencies."{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=177}} In collaboration with the National Command, the Military Committee succeeded in expelling the anti-military left from the party at the 7th National Congress.{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=179}} The Military Committee, which now controlled the Syrian Regional Branch, took control of the Ba'ath Party in the [[1966 Syrian coup d'état|coup of 1966]].{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=180}} The military committee accused the Old Guard of diluting socialist ideology and casting aside "[[collective leadership]]".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ginat|first=Rami|date=April 2000|title=The Soviet Union and the Syrian Ba'th regime: From hesitation to Rapprochement|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=36|issue=2|pages=153|doi=10.1080/00263200008701312|jstor=4284075|s2cid=144922816|access-date=2023-02-21|archive-date=2023-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221122004/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284075|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Middle East expert Avraham Ben-Tzur, "the [neo-]Ba'th in its latest variant is a bureaucratic apparatus headed by the military, whose daily life and routine are shaped by the rigid military oppression on the home front, and [Soviet aid among others] military aid."{{sfn|Ben-Tzur|1968|p=181}}