Introduction

The Baath Party has become the very symbol of the authoritarian regime in the Middle East. Hafez al-Asad in Syria and Saddam Hussein in Iraq exemplified the harsh dictatorship that dominated the two countries under Baathistrule. However, the premise of the Baathist ideology and the ideals put forward by its founders, such as Michel ‘Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar, differed in many ways from this reality. On the contrary, with a strong commitment to nationalism, ‘Aflaq and Bitar ascribed a high value to freedom and committed themselves to defending a true constitutional system in order to restore the Arab Nation. The present chapter aims to understand how and why the Baathist leaders shifted from this liberal background to take a more authoritarian approach to power.

In this chapter, while considering political evolutions in Syria between 1946 and 1955, I will argue that representations, values and political involvement are deeply linked. Politicians as ordinary people frame the reality that defines their actions. They nevertheless face a dilemma when what they believe to be right and good is in conflict either with other interests or, more often, with another point to which they ascribe a high value. Staging a revolution, defending the nation, placing the economy under state control, creating foreign alliances, promoting free elections are all examples of these ‘values’. The present chapter aims to demonstrate that politicians prioritise their actions according to certain values, and consequently, each value is assigned a certain position in a hierarchy. This hierarchy changes depending on the context.

This approach addresses Lucien Febvre's concept, refined by Olivier Wieviorka, of ‘the hierarchy of values’. Febvre's original concept provided insight into the mental universe of Francois Rabelais. In this way, he was able to formulate the true meaning of the French author's atheism with reference to the cultural context of the sixteenth century. Wieviorka expanded the scope of the concept, pointing out the division created among French deputies in 1940 by the two key values of anti-Bolshevik and anti-German feeling.