1 - State Capture and Devolution in Syria: A Paradoxical Landscape

Summary

This chapter tracks processes of continuity and change with regards to the institutional architecture of state capture from the rule of Hafez Assad in 1970 until the militarisation of the Syrian uprising in 2012. The informality of the Assad rule – arrangements that fall outside the scope of state institutions – play a crucial role in reproducing state capture. The chapter shows how the formality of state capture and its formative institutional arrangements in Syria gave prominence to actors and processes outside the formal realm of the state to reinforce the Assad rule.

The Institutional Architecture of State Capture

The transitional period of thirty-seven days between Hafez Assad's death on 10 June 2000 and Bashar Assad's inauguration as president on 17 July 2000 encapsulates, with great precision, the institutional features of state capture in Syria. Upon the death of his father, Bashar Assad came to power in July 2000 through a constitutional amendment that changed the age requirement for presidential candidates. Under the second title (‘The Powers of The State’) of the 1973 constitution presiding at the time, Article 83 stipulated that ‘the candidate for the presidency must be an Arab Syrian, enjoying his civil and political rights and be aged forty years at least’. The constitutional process for bringing about the amendment that lowered the age requirement was also laid out in the same 1973 constitution. Constitutional amendments required a proposal by one third and approval by two thirds of the People's Assembly (majlis al-sha’b or the Syrian parliament). The person overseeing the process of constitutional change after Hafez Assad's death was defence minister Mustafa Tlass who owed his position to Hafez Assad and had a vested interested in maintaining the status quo. The very same evening of Hafez Assad's death on 10 June 2000, the People's Assembly introduced the amendment to change the age threshold to thirty-four, Bashar Assad's age. Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam announced the decision the next day. Khaddam, who had served as vice president since 1984, was assigned Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1970 by Hafez Assad. Every aspect of the transition of power that took place between 10 June and 17 July of the year 2000, from previous president Hafez Assad, to vice president Khaddam, to the new president Bashar Assad, was predetermined by institutional arrangements introduced by Hafez Assad after he seized the state in 1970.