Consulting the Creation of a Democratic Institution in Syria
Class: IS307 Created Time: June 8, 2021 10:54 AM Database: Assignment Database Last Edited Time: September 5, 2021 12:16 PM Status: Done Tags:#Essay,#Test Type: Test
Writing
Syria has had seven different coups from the 1950s to 1970s. Alongside those came constitutional amendments, restoration, and replacement as well. These coups put in place leadership which take advantage of their power to exploit their own people. For instance the Ba’athi, who started its rule since 1963, had not only suspend constitutional protection for its citizens, but also conducted human right abuses which made it rank last on the Global Peace Index. The government at the time consolidated its power of executive, legislative, and judicial all into one (Constitutional History of Syria, n.d.). More recently, Syria has been in a civil-war ever since 2011 concerning an incident in which the government had tortured and questioned children for information which led to peaceful protests that were dealt with in an aggressive manner. However, the country has been under tension before then with cititizen’s dissatisfaction with president Bashar al-Assad’s government due to high unemployment rate, officials abusing power, and the lack of political freedom. All of these has led to hundreds of thousands of casualties, a portion of which are innocent civilians, as well as an economic crisis in 2020 (What’s Happening in Syria?, n.d.). From what is gathered, it seems the country is in much turmoil due to illegitimate governments abusing their power to exploit citizens who did not choose them. Moreover, alongside the rebellion forces against the government, there are also terrorists named the Islamic states invading the country from Iraq. The state of decay which Syria is suffering under needs to be reformed. In the following text, there will be discussion on the right combination of governmental structure for Syria to adopt in the state its in, to stabilize politically, then economically.
The first decision is that, in its new proposed constitution, Syria should adopt the federal state system over the unitary state system for various reasons. First off, Syria during its civil war has to a certain extent already began its process in federalization. The northeastern portion of the country to which is named the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) or Rojava has took on the process of dividing its society (Burç, 2020). In recognition and disdain for past dictatorship regimes the people of Rojava, which comprised of many different ethnic groups, had adopted its own regional division similar to the Non-Territorial Autonomy (NTA) system where autonomous decision making rights is given to each ethnic group in society. Along the way, the ANES also implemented many liberal governance features such as the decentralization model of autonomy, participative democracy, non-territoriality, and systematic gender equality. Although, the goal of the Kurds to become a large influence on the new Syrian Federation might not come to fruition, Syria can still take as an example in federalizing the whole country (What Is Non-Territorial Autonomy?, n.d.). Therefore, a prospect of a federalized Syria is not unfeasible. Moreover, the country has been through many coups where their constitution was neglected with a government that had no checks and balance. A unitary system lacks especially in this specific area. If Syria were to be a true democracy, the will of the people and their rights must be protected at all costs. Therein, a federal state system is the clear choice for a new democratic Syria.
The Syrian Arab Republic had a semi-presidential system before its coup in 1970 by Hafez al-Assad (Remembering the 1966 Syrian Coup d’état, 2021). Once again when thinking about the use of parliamentary, presidential, or semi-presidential system of government, the issue of stability and pace is brought up again and again. The country needs to have a system of government where presidents or prime ministers can be removed from office and bodies of government can be dissolved. The people should be able to express their dissatisfaction of the performance of their government officials, leaders, or the government itself and appropriate actions can be taken. Without this, the only method of obtaining political change is through violent revolutions, rebellion, and coups. Still, However many coups happen, new leaders cling onto and try to reinforce their power rather than make changes required to quell public dissatisfaction. This leads to an endless cycle of violent revolutions until the people get what they want (On Syria’s Turbulent History of Coups, 2014). Consequently, in creating a constitution of Syria with the goal of providing a stable democracy, absent of the need of coups, Syria must restore its semi-presidential system in which fulfills all the roles it is responsible for. A semi-presidential system enables the president to appoint and dismiss presidents. Referendums allow citizens to actively involved in decision-making. Unpopular prime ministers can be removed by legislature while the prime minister and president checks and balance one another (Newton & Deth, 2010). This system allows many layers of checks that make sure an influential decision is not made by a single person. Hence, Syria would benefit greatly to restore and improve its semi-presidential system to offer the most responsive and accountable government possible.
In forming a legislative branch of government, the form of weak bicameralism seems to fit Syria in the case of a new constitution. To start, Syria is a diverse country with all types of separations between people such as physical dividers (of mountains and sea) and soft dividers (of ethnic diversity and social differences). Syria is composed of 13 distinguishable different ethnic groups with their own cultures, aspirations, and need to be heard and represented in the proposed new government (Demographics | Heritage for Peace, n.d.). A democracy in its worse implementation will fill the legislative branch with the representatives of the majority. Therefore the needs of each groups need to be represented sufficiently to stop another revolution. In this case, Syria is required to adopt a bicameral system as it brings on more checks and balances to make sure one body cannot make substantial decisions without agreement of the whole government or the legislative representatives. As references in a 2016 paper examining bicameralism in Iraq and Syria, “a bicameral system should ensure 1. accepting the opinion of the majority as expressed in free, transparent elections for the Council of Representatives. 2. enabling community groups who do not have a numerical majority to manage their own local affairs and have an influential say in national decision-making.”. In a country of diversity, the only way to quell the need for a coup is to represent its people correctly fairly (al Khafaji, 2016). Furthermore, the legislative will be a weak bicameralism. Not only does it mean the government will have another level of check, but also for the reason that a strong bicameralism causes conflicts to end up with deadlock and indecision, which essentially turns the government useless. In this case, a weak bicameral legislative branch is a clear choice for Syria.
In a government, the judicial branch of government is becoming more and more important and influential in politics. As constitution is is the root of protection of the people from its government, what is and what is not against the rights of the people should not be decided by a politician who aims for power. Especially in the case of Syria who is experienced with leaders with too much power oppressing the people’s ‘disobedience’. Therefore, a judicial system of review must be implemented in the new constitution. The judicial review will act as a filter for both the executive and legislative in passing bills and determine whether the actions serves in the interests of its people or not. Such sensitive matters should be interpreted through legal deductive means rather than inductive gut feelings.
In addition, an ombudsman should be appointed to acknowledge and act on complaints from citizens of Syria of abuse of a governmental body to the citizen. As elaborated before, the proposed system of government seem to have a sufficient number of checks and balances from independent bodies that will ensure no one group gets too powerful. However, for a democracy to be what it aims to be, people must have a way to voice their issues with the government and have appropriate actions taken. This is better than the application of an administrative court because introducing another independent government body would make deadlocks more common and indecision to take place. An ombudsman will look into and protect any complaints that concern the threat against people’s rights as described in the constitution. As of currently, Syria is held by an authoritative regime in which Syrian cannot critique the government without repercussions. Furthermore, those people cannot be recompensated for crimes committed against them by the government. In some cases, governmental crimes in Syria had to be reported to the Swedish justice systems to be investigated and dealt with (Victims of Chemical Attacks in Syria File Complaint with Swedish Police, 2021). As shown, Syria desperately need a pipe for which public opinion can flow into the government decision making process and the best option is an ombudsman.
Lastly, the new government of Syria must be a decentralized form of multi-level government with the purpose of checks once again. Syria has been in a state of coups for many decades that that matches the features of a centralized government (Constitutional History of Syria, n.d.). A centralized system of governance would, once again, mean the fusion of the executive and legislative office. It would allow for quicker and more efficient actions to be taken, but at the cost of the much needed filter of checks and balances required to protect against overpowering of any one body.
In total, a new constitution for Syria should detail the new government to be a multi-level federal semi-presidential with a weak bicameral legislature and a judicial review. On top of that, the new Syrian government must include an ombudsman to ensure the complaints of citizens are heard clearly and are attended to. From the wake of a history of authoritarian regimes with regular coups of dissatisfaction of each of the last governments, the new Syria must meet all the need that make coups happens in the first place. Once that happens, Syria can develop towards a stable liberal democratic state, recovering from its troublesome past.
References
Newton, K., & Deth, J. W. van. (2010). Foundations of comparative politics: Democracies of the modern world (2nd ed). Cambridge University Press.
Remembering the 1966 Syrian coup d’état. (2021, February 21). Middle East Monitor. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210221-remembering-the-1966-syrian-coup-detat/
What is non-territorial autonomy? (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2021, from https://ntautonomy.univie.ac.at/en/research/what-is-non-territorial-autonomy/
Constitutional history of Syria. (n.d.). ConstitutionNet. Retrieved May 26, 2021, from https://constitutionnet.org/country/syria
What’s happening in Syria? - CBBC Newsround. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2021, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16979186
Burç, R. (2020). Non-territorial autonomy and gender equality: The case of the autonomous administration of north and east Syria - Rojava. Filozofija i Drustvo, 31(3), 319–339. https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2003319B
On Syria’s turbulent history of coups. (2014, November 26). Al Arabiya English. https://english.alarabiya.net/views/news/middle-east/2014/11/26/On-Syria-s-turbulent-history-of-coups
al Khafaji, I. (2016). A Bicameral Parliament in Iraq and Syria. Arab Reform Initiative. https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/a-bicameral-parliament-in-iraq-and-syria/
Demographics | Heritage for Peace. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2021, from http://www.heritageforpeace.org/syria-country-information/geography/
Victims of chemical attacks in Syria file complaint with Swedish police. (2021, April 19). Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/victims-chemical-attacks-syria-file-complaint-with-swedish-police-2021-04-19/