Editing Ba'ath Party (section)

===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}}