Political Systems (and finishing post-WWII)

TodayQuick Review of last class

Turkey, Iran, Egypt – how they used consolidation strategies I talked about last Thursday.

Nasser’s Egypt II, Iraq, Syria, Jordan in brief.

A Typology of Government Systems

Monday – 1970s through 1990s (& finish typology) Thursday – Arab-Israeli Wars

Egypt Free Officers Coup (1952) and RCC

Nasser consolidates power

Complex issues with British

1954 War

Nasser’s Pan-Arabism and the UAR

Nasser’s socialism

Iraq Hashemite Monarchy

Problems in the 1950s

Qasim’s coup in 1958

Baath Party takes power in 1963 Arif brothers Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr

Syria Legacy of French Mandate

Parliamentary system and political parties

Military intrusion

Michel Aflaq and Syrian Ba’athism

Hafez al-Asad takes power in 1970

Jordan Assassination of King Abdullah in 1951

Hussein takes power – coup attempts, assassination attempts, and internal war with the PLO in 1970

Martial Law in 1957

US support under Eisenhower doctrine

Possible Typology

4 groups:

Nationalist Revolutionary RepublicsAlgeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia

MonarchiesJordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Gulf States

Conditional DemocraciesTurkey, Israel, Lebanon

Islamic StatesIran, Sudan

Nationalist Revolutionary RepublicsAlgeria, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia• Single-party rule• Exposure to intellectual currents of European state consolidation •Nationalism, some political liberalism, socialism

• Soviet Union as capable model of dealing with challenges• European countries were seen as primary culprits of colonialism, US emphasized anti-communism > support of liberal democracy.• Political left (esp. socialist organizations) were most active at opposing colonialism character of nationalism

•Strong, centralized, bureaucratic state-- Secularization - Western legal systems installed as opposed to indigenous or religious legal codes

Single-party dominance (often masked by multi-partism)

Personalistic Systems - Syria, Libya, Iraq, with dictatorial rulers and legislative bodies

MonarchiesJordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Gulf States

• Government ruled by a single person, power passed down hereditarily, separate from all other members of the state

• ABSOLUTE vs CONSTITUTIONAL (limited)

• 1950s and 60s saw 6 monarchies fall, but in all following decades only ONE has fallen (Pahlavi in Iran)

• Economic strength in many of the monarchies allows consolidation of power through patronage and cooption

• All have aligned with the West (Cold War Balance of Power)

• Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman have same ruling family for more than two-hundred years!

• Arab kingship not like Europe – gained legitimacy through capable leadership, few institutionalized succession processes, competition among successors produces strong kings

Conditional DemocraciesTurkey, Israel, Lebanon

Islamic StatesIran, Sudan