In 1947, the Baath party was established by Michel Aflaq, a Syrian schoolteacher and Arab nationalist who is considered to be the founder of Baath ideology. In the spirit of the time, the party was quick to gain a popular base among a generation that was eager to see their country free of foreign influence. In 1953, the popular base of the party widened even further when it merged with the Arab Socialist Party to become thereafter the Arab Socialist Baath party. In 1963, following the coup d’état of the Baath party in Iraq, a group of Baathist army officers, which included Hafez al-Assad, seized power in Syria. Subsequently, a rift occurred between the party’s military wing and its civilian wing, the latter lacking the organization and the unity of the first. Supporters of the latter were then forced out of the party’s leadership.

Between 1966 and 1970, the Baath underwent major ideological debates within its party lines. The debates were mostly concerned with the party’s orientation. In 1970, Hafez al-Assad came to power through a coup that was termed the Corrective Movement (al-Haraka al-Tashihiya). After the coup, the schism between the military and civilian wings of the party grew further. This corrective movement became a landmark in the history of the party in Syria. In 1970, the original image of the Baath as a party with honest leaders who looked to govern without corruption was altered.

The party was transformed into a big bureaucracy and membership became open to all Syrians. In a short period of time, the party became a powerful avenue through which members could find security from prosecution, employment opportunities and even admissions to universities. Those who opposed the party were immediately shunned. In 1973, the Baath party became the ‘leader of state and society’ by constitution. Accordingly, government and military posts became reserved for party members only. It became clear that under the Baath rule, becoming a member of the party would have clear advantages.

The rapid expansion of the party was not without challenges. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria initiated numerous attacks targeting military and government officials. This culminated in an insurgency that took place in Hama in February of 1982, to which the government initiated a brutal retaliation that crushed the movement. The resulting number of casualties is not definite, but is estimated to be somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000.

After the attacks, the party was able to maintain its influential status in the country. Within the party, power became centralized among the president’s close circle of advisers, family and military personnel. At this stage, the shortcomings of the Baath party became more evident. The socialism that it promised during its foundation stages translated into poverty, stagnation, and an incapable public sector. This was coupled with a wide scale of corruption among party officials.

When Bashar al-Assad took power after the death of his father in 2000, he promoted himself in the role as a reformist. He sought to recover the economy from stagnation and generate growth through economic liberalization. Political reforms, however, were slower to materialize. The constitution, for example, was never altered to change the status of the Baath party as the ‘leader of state and society’. This only took place in February 2012. Today, with Syrians expressing a clear concern over their freedom of expression, the status of the Baath party is as precarious as ever. It remains to be seen whether it would extend its pragmatism past the economic concerns in order to preserve its presence in Syria in light of the current violence that has swept across the country.