Transcript Gov't Types II and the 1970s-90s

The 1970s-90s
Focus on:
• Ba’ath power in Syria & Iraq
• Islamic Revolution in Iran (& theories of revolution)
• Iran-Iraq War
Next time: ‘The Peace Process’
Ba’ath Power in Syria & Iraq
• competition for regional dominance
• Similarities – rural advancement, authoritarian, use of military
and Ba’ath party, absolute power and personality cult, socialist
economic policies
• RURAL ORIGINS OVER URBAN POLITICIANS & MERCHANTS
• Ibn Khaldun – badu/hadar.
• “town” versus “desert” dichotomy.
• Ba’ath Party Motto (Unity, Freedom, Socialism)
SYRIA
• Regime and
consolidation of power
in “Corrective
Movement”
• Previous Ba’ath too
adventurous (Black
September)
• Domestic Politics
• 1973 constitution
• Muslim President?
• State-led reforms
• Regional Influence
from 1973 War
Hafiz Al-Asad
• Internal Challenge
• Primarily Sunni
• Islamic Front
• Foreign Policy (Lebanon, Iran-Iraq War)
• Domestic Policy (Rural privilege,
corruption & repression)
SYRIA in LEBANON – a “special relationship”
• Ta’if Agreement (1989)
• Attempt to end civil war and bring about national reconciliation –
•
•
•
•
out of two governments, one?
Remember National Pact and demographic issues
Equal #’s of Parliament & Cabinet seats among Christians and
Muslims
Many presidential powers  Prime Minister
Disarmament & disbanding militias to be facilitated by Syrian
assistance
• The Rebellion of Michel Aoun (1989-90)
• War of liberation against the Syrians
Islamic Revolution in Iran
• Precedents
• White Revolution and its effects
• Modern capitulations (oil)
• Revolution is:
• the collapse of one political order
and its replacement by another
• “rapid, basic transformations of
society’s state and class structures,
and of its dominant ideology…
carried through, in part, by classbased upheavals from below.”
(Skocpol)
REVIEW: White Revolution
 (started in 1963)
 Top-down, bloodless
 Major social, economic, and political reforms

ON ONE HAND: Land reform granting private ownership, increased
educational support and access, greater secularization, women’s
enfranchisement, social welfare, subsidies for industrial growth
THE OTHER HAND: Maintain majorly corrupt regime with uneven
distribution of income and widespread political repression
 Opposition by religious establishment in the mid 1970s

 Land reform included land taken from religious leaders and hurt their
economic interests
 Positive impacts, but very selective
 Resented by religious leaders
What happened?
• We already know about  MRS takes throne (1941); CIA overthrow of Mossadeq
(1953); MRS back on throne; White Revolution (1962)
• Ulema and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
• Early to mid 1970s
• Guerrilla Fighting, economic downturn, Carter, Khomeini propaganda
• Revolutionary Demands
• Abolish SAVAK
• New elections for Majlis
• Immediate transition to Constitutional ‘Limited’ Monarchy (mostly symbolic
institution)
• 1978 - stakes get higher
• Events of 1979
Inverse Relationship between POPULAR RESISTANCE…
… and LEGITIMATE CLAIM TO AUTHORITY (legitimacy)
Revolutions
• Rational Theories
• actions of large groups or organizations must be reducible to
actions of individuals
• collective action problem (tendency to free-ride)
• Structural Theories
• “Revolutions aren’t made. They come.”
• Structural conditions facilitate revolution
• Social Mobilization Theories
• Agency
• Importance of Khomeini as mobilizing force (charismatic
leader)
• Culture & Ideology
"Familiarize the people with the truth of Islam so that the
young generation may not think that the men of religion in the
mosques of Qum and al-Najaf believe in the separation of
church from state, that they study nothing other than
menstruation and childbirth and that they have nothing to do
with politics."
-Ayatollah Khomeini
“The Purpose of our lives is never to cease the
struggle. We are like waves—our calmness is in our
fading away”
-A slogan of Iranian college students in the 1970s
IRAQ
• Husayn
• Domestic Issues
• ethnic and sectarian
antagonism
• Role of oil in consolidation
of power
• Foreign policy
 Iran-Iraq War
Politics of Culture in IRAQ
 Cultural Wholes versus the Cultural Arena
 Cultural arena can be broken down into two perspectives –
structure and agency.
 Culture as a system of symbols and meanings
 Symbols
 Culture as practice
 Tool Kit
 The goal is HEGEMONY
Flag of 1958 Revolution
Iraqi Flag 1959 –
1963 under Qasim
Nisb el-Hurriya (Freedom Monument)
Iraqi Flag under
Ba’ath Rule
1968 – 1991
Iraqi Flag under
Ba’ath Rule
1991 - 2003
Project for the Rewriting of History under Ba’th Party
Goes beyond simple political indoctrination
Sought to negate Iraqist nationalism’s inclusive legacy and build a “new Iraqi
man and Society”
• Reject or ignore existing power relations (tribalism, sectarianism,
social class)
• Get rid of Iraqist nationalist legacy from historical record
• Strictly limit religion to the private sphere
• Develop new Iraq-centered concept of Pan-Arabism
Ideological Contradiction
• Could not adopt exclusive Pan-Arabism (alienation of Kurds, Shi’is,
communists)
• Could not embrace Iraqist nationalism (negated Pan-Arabism)
Shu’ubiya Controversy and the
Iran-Iraq War
Shu’ubiya Controversy and the Iran-Iraq War
Arabized Persian Shi’a (core of ‘Abbasid bureaucracy, worked
to undermine empire from within and caused its downfall)
Message to Sunni minority – Shi’a are untrustworthy
Message to Shi’a – enjoying benefits of the state required
renunciation of cultural heritage
Monument of the Unknown Unknown
Soldier
Hands of Victory (Swords of Qadisiyah)
Shatt al-Arab Martyr’s Monument
Iran – Iraq War (1980-88)
 Arab-Persian frontier
 Kurdish Rebellion in Northern Iraq
 Iran’s open borders violating 1975 Algiers Agreement
 Khomeini’s call for overthrow of Saddam’s regime
 Islamism vs. Secular Nationalism
 Saddam strategy to strike early before new government could
consolidate its power
 Outside sources of support