Draft:Corrective Movement program (Syria)

Corrective Movement

Syrian postage stamp commemorating the fifth anniversary of launching program
Date	November 1970 – June 2000
Location	Ba'athist Syria
Cause	Economic decline after the rule of Salah Jadid Military weakness Political instability
Motive	Modernization of the economy, medicine and education Consolidation of power Creation of a powerful army Strengthening ties with the Soviet Union Return of the Golan Heights
Outcome	Inconclusive Infrastructure expanded Medicine and education improved Austerity policy in mid-1980s The emergence of the "New Class" "Assadization" of Syria Huge militarization Socialist reforms have been finally ended by Bashar al-Assad

Corrective Movement was a political, social and economic reformist program, launched by new leader of Ba'athist Syria, Hafez al-Assad, soon after he came to power in so-called Corrective Revolution in 1970.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} The Corrective Movement program was also compared to Mikhail Gorbachev's future perestroika program.^[8]

The Corrective Movement program was the new government's reaction to the results of the extremely radical and aggressive policies of its predecessor, Salah Jadid, and was marked by a number of political and economic relaxations and changes (especially in the first decade).^[3][9] Reforms eventually succeeded in eradicating some of the socialist excesses of the radical Ba'athists who preceded him and improved relations with the Sunni Arab merchant class.^[9][10] Program also led to the huge militarization of Syria and constitutional centralization of power in president's hands.

When the communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc collapsed, an ideological crisis within the government arose.^[11] However, Assad and his supporters hit back, stating that because of the "Corrective Movement under the leadership of the warrior Hafez al-Assad", the principles of economic and political pluralism, which had been introduced "some two decades" beforehand, safeguarded the Syrian government from the possibility of collapse.^[11]

As the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa stated, "I am not exaggerating when I say that the Corrective Movement, which took place in 1970 under the leadership of Hafez al-Assad ... has crystallized for the first time in modern Arab history a mature and realistic pan-Arab ideology."^[12]

However, as a result of the program, Syria also faced a number of economic and political problems, such as shortages of goods and austerity policy in the 1980s,^[13] as well as the formation of a totalitarian Assadist dictatorship and the gradual isolation of Syria from the entire region.

Background

Salah Jadid

Main article: Salah Jadid

Since 1966, Syria has been effectively ruled by General Salah Jadid. Jadid, who held radical pro-Marxist views, became the first major ideologist of neo-Ba'athism. The rule of Jadid's Marxist-Leninist regime was characterized by brutal repressions, the harsh imposition of atheism and far-left reforms. Jadid's swift and harsh imposition of such radical measures was extremely unpopular inside the country.^[14]

Repressions

Almost immediately after coming to power, Jadid reorganized all state intelligence agencies, centralizing their activities and management under the National Security Bureau, which gained a sad reputation for its brutal methods of torture and imprisonment of political prisoners.^[15][16][17]

Radical socialism

The Jadid regime adopted a Marxist program of rapid economic development.^[18] Jadid and his supporters prioritised socialism and the "internal revolution",^[19] promoted the idea of class struggle and attempted a socialist transformation of Syrian society at a forced pace, creating unrest and economic difficulties. As the state assumed greater control over economic decision-making by adopting centralized planning and strictly regulating commercial transactions, Syria experienced a substantial loss of skilled workers, administrators, and their capital.^[20] The properties of traders, local businessmen and land owners were confiscated by Jadid's radical leftist regime, while the Syrian military forces became thoroughly politicized with neo-Ba'athist officers.^[21]

Atheism

Jadid's ideologues openly denounced religion as a source of what they considered the "backwardness" of the Arabs.^[22] The new regime decreed that religious schools were to be closed, religious institutions nationalized, the powers of religious leaders curtailed, and religious provisions removed from the constitution, among other anti-religious measures.^[23] The Jadid regime was very anti-religious and imposed severe restrictions on religious freedom, banning religious preaching and persecuting the clergy.^[24] Neo-Ba'athists viewed the religious clerics as class enemies to be liquidated by the Ba'athist state.^[25] The party disseminated the doctrine of the "Arab Socialist New Man", which conceptualised the "New Arab Man" as an atheist who campaigned for socialist revolution and rejected religion, feudalism, imperialism, capitalism, and every value of the old social order.^[25][23]

1970 coup d'etat

Main article: Corrective Revolution (Syria)

Postage stamp on the first anniversary of Corrective Movement, 1971

In 1970, a coup d'état took place in Syria that overthrew the Jadid regime and brought Hafez al-Assad to power. Assad named his coup the same name he later gave to his reform program (the "Corrective Movement"). This military coup was presented to everyone as a “correction of intra-party politics” and not as a seizure of power using the army.^[26] At the 11th National Congress, Assad assured party members that his leadership was a radical change from that of Jadid, and he would implement a "corrective movement" to return Syria to the true "nationalist socialist line".^[27][28] Unlike Jadid, Assad emphasised "the advancement of which all resources and manpower would be mobilized was to be the liberation of the occupied territories". This would mark a major break with his predecessors and would, according to Raymond Hinnebusch, dictate "major alterations in the course of the Ba'athist state".^[27] Assad called his domestic reforms a "Corrective Movement", and it achieved some results.^[1] Some of the main goals of the Corrective Movement were to restore the trust of the people and external potential sponsors in the government and to revive the economy, which had suffered serious hardships after the aggressive and unpopular policies of Salah Jadid.^[3]

Economic reforms

Assad proved to be more pragmatic in his policies than Jadid - therefore the reforms of his Corrective Movement program were characterized by initial economic relief from radical oppression:^[29][3][30] the Assad government immediately abandoned Jadid's radical and unpopular Marxist program of development (However, Assad continued to follow the socialist Ba'athist path - the economy remained centralized and largely controlled by the government).^[31][30] As stated, the Corrective Movement continued the purpose of the March 8 Revolution, but slightly changed the priorities in their achievement, which was formulated in the new constitution of the 1973 model.^[32]

Under the Corrective Movement program, the government has allocated significant resources to improve the lives of citizens.^[11] Assad cut prices for basic foodstuffs 15 percent, which won him support from ordinary citizens. The confiscation of goods under Jadid was reversed, restrictions on travel to and trade with Lebanon were eased, and Assad encouraged growth in the private sector.^[19] Encouraging the private sector in the economy played into Assad's hands after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the oil embargo (and the rise in oil prices) and the influx of Arab capital.^[29] Moreover, higher prices for agricultural exports, as well as the state's limited economic liberalization policy, encouraged growth.^[13] By the end of the decade, the Syrian economy had shifted from its traditional agrarian base to an economy dominated by the service, industrial, and commercial sectors.^[13] The state continued to play a role in regulating prices for basic goods and in employing citizens - according to official figures, by 1991 the unemployment rate was only about 6 percent.^[33]

Liberalization of economy

In official language, the process of economic and political pluralism in Syria has come to be called "ta'adudia".^[29]

The Corrective Movement program recognized the importance of foreign investment, so it made important decisions to attract and protect it: for example, the confiscation of foreign capital was completely prohibited, and investors themselves were given the right to take half of their investments out of Syria, or to withdraw the entire amount invested in a particular project, within the first six months if the project encountered difficulties. The government also simplified the process of concluding trade contracts and agreements.^[2]

In 1971, the government established the Free Zone General Commission: its duties included the management, operation and control of the "free zones", that is, zones where customs regulations do not apply and through which goods and services move without any restrictions: by 1975, the area of ​​these free zones throughout Syria had increased many times over. A potential investor was given the right to lease such zones in which to carry out his activities: goods produced there began to be exported duty-free.^[2]

Construction work at the Latakia Sports Complex Stadium in Latakia, 1987

By the mid-1970s, Assad, as part of the Corrective Movement, had introduced further market reforms, passing a series of laws on the formation of companies in the tourism and transport sectors to further stimulate the private sector.^[29] By 1976, The New York Times Magazine noted the impressive successes of the Corrective Movement reforms: thus, Syria's imports had increased by 332 percent (to 4,571 million Syrian pounds) and exports by 376 percent (to 2,914 million Syrian pounds) by 1974 compared with 1970.^[2] However, the economic liberalization policy failed to prevent the growing crisis in Syria, which resulted in austerity policies in the mid-1980s amid the growth of the black market, inflation (inflation rate jumped to almost 60 percent^[33]), and the fall of the Syrian pound. During the austerity period, there were more shortages of goods and even regular power cuts in major cities (including Damascus) occurred.^[11] The government also responded with new reforms, such as the creation of a number of mixed-sector companies in agribusiness and the adoption of a new law that granted many privileges to expatriates;^[29] and some slowing down of the militarization process.^[33] Along with the economy, the debt to external creditors also grew - if in 1980 it amounted to a little more than 3.5 billion US dollars, then by 1994 this figure had grown to 20.5 billion US dollars.^[29]

The closer the collapse of the Soviet Union, the main ally of the Hafez al-Assad regime, came, the more the government moved towards economic liberalization and rapprochement with Western European countries,^[29] even with the United States.^[33] In 1991, Law No. 10 was passed, which finally opened the public sector to private investment and provided eligible investors with even more privileges, such as tax breaks.^[29][34] Under this law, by 1998 the government had approved 1,494 projects with a total cost of $366 billion (however, the government later admitted that most of them had failed).^[11] However, laws that contradicted this were often introduced: for example, Law No. 24 officially punished the private currency sector, although it was applied very rarely. In 1992, economic growth was 10.2 percent, although by 1994-1995 it had fallen to only 6.7 percent and again to 2.2 percent in 1996.^[29] The government also relaxed import restrictions, which led to an increase in imports - while in 1989 the sum of all Syrian imports was $2 billion, by 1993 it had grown to more than $4.5 billion.^[11]

Agricultural sector

In the early years, the Syrian economy was heavily dependent on agriculture (but its importance gradually declined over time), so the Corrective Movement program increased state funding for the agricultural sector many times over: in the Third Five-Year Plan (1971-1975), the state invested 890 million Syrian pounds in it, which is 654 percent more than in the Second Five-Year Plan (1965-1970), in which investments amounted to only 135 million Syrian pounds. The government also raised prices for agricultural products to motivate farmers not to move to the city and supported farmers by encouraging them to use fertilizers, which increased threefold in quantity (from 40,000 used tons in 1970 to 126,000 in 1975). Tractor production was also increased to further stimulate farming, with a target of producing 6,000 tractors annually.^[2] By the 1990s, the rural sector's share of the economy had declined to 26 percent.^[29]

Workers assemble engines at a tractor factory, 1974

On May 11, 1971, the government adopted the Legislative Decree No. 15, also known as the Law on Local Self -Government - its main goal is to concentrate responsibility for the land in the hands of the workers and granting them the possibilities of management. The Ministry of Local Administration, created on August 12, 1971, is responsible for compliance with Legislative Decree No. 15 as well as the planning of regional development programs.^[32]

On November 9, 1975, Law No. 14 was adopted, forming the Supreme Agricultural Council (SAC). The SAC is responsible for establishing the scale of the production of specific agricultural products, the establishment of prices for these products, establishing prices for resources for farmers (such as fertilizers), lending to rural lending policy, adulthood of marketing policy and ensuring coordination of all these policies as well as organizations below.^[32] The organization includes Prime Minister, Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affaires, Ba'ath Party's Senior Representate Peasant Affairs, Executive Director of the Peasants Union, and the minists of agriculture and agrarian Reform, Planning, Foreign Trade, Economy, Industry, Supply and Home Trade.^[32]

Infrastructure

Massive expenditures for development of irrigation, electricity, water, road building projects, irisin plants and expansion of health services and education to rural areas contributed to prosperity.^[13] Hafez al-Assad invested heavily in infrastructure such as electricity, water, and transportation. For example, in 1992, 36 billion Syrian pounds was spent on upgrading and expanding infrastructure, and in 1993, the government spent more than 60 billion Syrian pounds on the same, which was more than 50 percent of the country's annual budget. Likewise, a number of new power plants were built to meet the increased demand for electricity.^[11] From 1992 to 1993, the investment budget for infrastructure development is also increased, and increased by 230 percent, from 4 billion Syrian pounds in 1992 to more than 13.5 billion in 1993. Investment in telephone services also paid off: the number of telephone subscribers in the country increased from 500,000 in 1992 to 3 million by 1999.^[11]

Construction of a power plant and dam on the Euphrates, 1972

One of the significant successes of the Corrective Movement was the completion of the Euphrates Dam with the support of the USSR. The dam was constructed during the agricultural reform policies of Hafez al-Assad, who had re-routed the Euphrates river for the dam in 1974.^[35] The total cost of the dam was US$340 million of which US$100 million was in the form of a loan by the Soviet Union.^[36] The Soviet Union also provided technical expertise.^[37] During construction, up to 12,000 Syrians and 900 Russian technicians worked on the dam.^[38] Dam was completed in 1973, while the accompanying power station was finished on 8 March 1978, on the anniversary of 1963 Ba'athist revolution.^[39]

The emergence of the "New Class"

Many bourgeois families, ruined by Jadid, were given a second chance to prosper after Assad came to power.^[29] The liberalization (albeit partial) of the economy intensified over time, and by the early 1990s a new socio-political class of the bourgeoisie had finally formed in Syria, which became known as the "New Class" (al-Tabaqa al-Jadida).^[40] The New Class was heavily dependent on the survival of the market economic system in Syria and had close ties with the Assad government and Syrian elite.^[29] As a result of the Corrective Movement, the New Class grown quite quickly and parasitized in the Syrian economy (for example, because of expansion of the state and public investments).^[41][42] It did not exceed 1 percent of the population, but have high level of power in Syria, especially in 1990s.^[42][8] The New Class received especially strong power in the 2000s with the advent of Bashar al-Assad and the beginning of his intensive market reforms.^[43]

Political reforms

Domestic policy

Soldiers carry the logo of Ba'ath Party during parade, 1990

Jadid's security services were purged, some military criminal investigative powers were transferred to the police.^[19] He made overtures to the Writers' Union, rehabilitating those who had been forced underground, jailed or sent into exile for representing what radical Ba'athists called the reactionary classes. As he said, "I am determined that you shall no longer feel strangers in your own country." Although Assad did not democratize the country, he eased the government's repressive policies.^[19] The Corrective Movement also constitutionally enshrined the key role of the president in governing the country - but the president's power rested on the army and the party, without which he could not safely govern it.^[9] In 1972, Ba'ath Party formed so-called National Progressive Front - coalition of leftist non-Ba'athist groups (Salah Jadid rejected the formation of any coalition with non-Ba'athist groups in Syria^[44]), to provide for a limited degree of participation in government by political parties other than the ruling Ba'ath Party.^[45] The Assad government also launched massive campaigns to recruit new people to the Ba'ath Party.^[31]

Political leniency was reversed in the early 1980s, when the regime, after suppressing the Islamist uprising, reverted to the same level of totalitarianism as under Salah Jadid. However, in the 1990s, Assad resumed leniency, issuing amnesties and releasing thousands of political prisoners, including those convicted under Law No. 49, or the Revolution Protection Law.^[33]

Foreign policy

Initially, the Corrective Movement brought Syria to "a new sphere of international recognition," in the words of the New York Times, and gradually began to lift Syria out of its status as an isolated and aggressive (even toward other Arab countries) state.^[3]

Syria's policy towards Israel has remained unchanged for decades - at best, sometimes adjusted in propaganda - but the demands for the return of the Golan Heights and all occupied Arab territories have not gone away, although over time Syria has demonstrated an increasing inclination towards negotiations rather than war.^[33] The Corrective Movement also tried to reach out to other Arab countries with which relations had become bad during Jadid's rule (such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan) and achieved some initial results: the anti-Jordanian "Voice of the Palestinian Revolution" radio and the anti-Saudi "Voice of the Arabian Peninsula" radio were closed down, and relations with both countries were restored for a time even before the Yom Kippur War.^[46]

Social reforms

Assad promoted slogans of "opening to the people" (al-infitah ala al-Sha'ab).^[47] The expansion of the social base achieved already in the first years of the Corrective Movement allowed Hafez al-Assad to consolidate his control over Syria.^[9] The policies dictated by the Corrective Movement succeeded in creating a sense of national unity among Syrians after decades of instability and fragmentation.^[3][31]

In the early years, highly politicized plays and films were even allowed to be shown, debunking official propaganda versions and worldviews, and even ridiculing members of the government. There were even rumors that if a play could make Hafez al-Assad personally laugh, it was allowed to be shown to the public.^[26]

Hafez al-Assad was a secularist, not an atheist like Jadid, so he began to pursue secular domestic policies instead of anti-religious ones. Initially, he did not even include a clause that the president should be a Muslim in the new constitution of 1973, but conservative Muslims strongly opposed this, and under their pressure, this clause was included there anyway.^[26]

Peasants

In the early years of his rule, Hafez al-Assad did not have enough support among the urban elite, so he relied on the support of peasants from the countryside, who lived much worse than city dwellers: Assad, who grew up in a peasant family, considered the peasants his natural allies.^[8][26] The Corrective Movement program was also aimed at improving the situation of rural areas and better providing them with what they did not have: good roads, electricity networks, and quality medical facilities: thus, peasants gained easier access to education and medical care.^[30]

Women

Further information: Women in Syria

The reformist campaign initially also liberalized a number of laws concerning the economic and political status of Syrian women.^[30] The participation of women in the industrial industry rose from 13 percent in 1971 to 23 percent by 1981 (but by 1990s it decreased sharply to 9 percent); In the service sector, it rose from 18 percent in 1970 to 47 percent in 1981. If in 1981 women in the active public sector were only 30 percent of workers, then by the mid-1990s this percentage increased to 40.^[40]

March of women in military uniform in Damascus. They have banner that says "Progressive women everywhere lead a common struggle".

The party had been committed to involving women in Syria's development since 1963, but with Assad's rise to power, this commitment increased. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the number of girls in the education system dramatically increased due to the Ba'ath Party initiative to combat illiteracy.^[48] Education for girls was made free and compulsory, and the path to political and military careers was opened for girls.^[49] During Hafez al-Assad's rule, videos of female paratroopers in military uniform were distributed as an argument for the party's modernity and progressiveness. The role of women in the army was also expanded, although they did not participate in combat operations. In the ranks of the army, measures were also taken to prevent discrimination against women on the basis of gender: this was officially strictly prohibited by the Law on Military Service.^[50]

Militarization

The Syrian government was deeply concerned about the fact that the United States continued to supply Israel with sophisticated weapons and support it financially and politically.^[3] The Assad regime has been able to benefit greatly from Syria's position as a confrontational military state on the border with Israel. Thanks to its position, Syria received financial aid from the Soviet Union and (intermittently) from the Arab world, which allowed it to constantly invest huge amounts of money in the development of the army, the costs of which were constantly growing.^[29] With the withdrawal of Egypt from the Soviet zone of influence in the late-1970s, Syria's role became especially important for the Soviet Union.^[9]

Military parade in 1990

The Corrective Movement supported the creation of a powerful state army to be capable of military confrontation with Israel.^[27][46][31] Therefore, military spending has been a significant and priority item in the Syrian economy for decades. Thus, even in 1991, national security spending amounted to almost $2.5 billion, equivalent to 32 percent of the entire state budget.^[33] In 1982, Syria spent $2.4 billion on defense and internal security, which was 30 percent of the total government budget for the year.^[51] If in 1967 the Syrian army included only 50,000 soldiers, by 1987 this figure had increased to 500,000.^[52] Syria was one of the four largest arms importers in the world (between 1961 and 1979, it imported weapons worth $7.4 billion, one of the highest figures).^[51] In 1990, Syria was the fourth most militarized country in the world in proportion to population, with 35.9 soldiers for every 1,000 inhabitants, and the 12th highest per capita defense spender.^[53]

Militarism became a visible part of Syrian society - even the civilian sectors of the country were affected by it.^[54] This was especially evident in schools and educational institutions - students were required to wear official school uniforms, which were very similar to military uniforms;^[55][56] attend special classes known as "Futuwa", where they were taught how to assemble, repair and use weapons;^[57][58] and were sent to special military camps for 15 days, where they were introduced even more closely to the life of a soldier.^[57][49]

Aftermath

The Corrective Movement program encountered difficulties, but it accomplished its goal of building a strong militaristic state that would survive the collapse of communism throughout the world.

The collapse of world communism

Further information: Revolutions of 1989 and Dissolution of the Soviet Union

By the end of the 1980s, the communist regimes of the Eastern bloc (and the world in general) were rapidly collapsing one after another, which presented a serious ideological challenge to the government of Hafez al-Assad, but Syrian propaganda confidently and regularly asserted that the path chosen by the Syrian Ba'ath Party was the only correct one, so what was happening to other socialist governments around the world had nothing to do with Syria.^[33] As Tishreen newspaper stated:

The collapse of the regimes that used to call themselves socialist in Eastern Europe does not mean the end of socialism and the collapse of socialist thinking. Rather it signals the collapse of a pattern of socialist practice that will be rightly judged and assessed by history... The importance of the Corrective Movement led by struggler Hafez al-Assad can be seen. This movement advanced the principle of political and economic pluralism almost two decades ago. It also devised methods for political and social development that proved capable of withstanding the toughest foreign pressures.^[33]

Assadization

Main article: Assadization

Assad took into account the experience of his predecessors who did not hold power for long. Therefore, he successfully consolidated his power by placing people close to him or loyal Alawites in absolutely all the top positions - this process became known as the Assadization of Syria.^[59][60] As a result, strong loyalist networks of the ruling party, army and state apparatus have formed in Syria, as well as a large-scale cult of Assad's personality and a powerful propaganda machine.

See also

• Assadism
• Saddamism
• Ba'athist Iraq
• Revolutionary Corrective Initiative
• June 13 Corrective Movement
• Corrective Move

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