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| Volume XVI, Summer 2009, Number 2 |
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EXCERPT
Syria and the Financial Crisis: Prospects for Reform?
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| Shana Marshall |
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Ms. Marshall is a Ph.D. Candidate in international relations and comparative politics at the University of Maryland. Her work has appeared in Political Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus. Research for this article was conducted under a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation.
The global financial crisis may prove to be a turning point in the struggle underway within the Syrian leadership between a younger generation of technocrats and the old-guard remnants of Hafez al-Asad’s rule. Although important banking reforms and the opening of a stock exchange have introduced elements of capitalism into the cumbersome economy, resistance to reforming the bloated state bureaucracy and relaxing political controls demonstrates the continued power of regime hardliners. Yet as the financial crisis deepens, conservative elements in the regime who initially touted the benefits of a system not closely integrated into world markets are now more likely to concede that a fall in aid and remittances signals both their vulnerability to global market fluctuations and structural weaknesses in their economy. The framing of the financial crisis as one in which U.S.-style unregulated capitalism is to blame provides political space for reformers and conservatives to reach a consensus without losing face. Whether the reformists can seize the moment and implement more substantive changes will mean a lot for domestic economic and political development but also for regional politics and U.S.-Syrian relations.
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