Charities and Politics in Bashar Al-Asad's Syria - by Laura Ruiz de Elvira (Hardcover)

About the Book

Studies the reconfiguration of the Syrian regime through the revival of charities under al-Asad (2000-2010).

Book Synopsis

Charities and Politics in Bashar al-Asad's Syria analyses the renewal and revival of the role of Syrian charities during Bashar al-Asad's first ten years in power (2000-2010) in order to understand the political engineering deployed by the Syrian regime in the decade prior to the uprising. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork undertaken between 2007 and 2010, as well as on more than fifty interviews and other secondary sources, this book is the first comprehensive study of the country's poorly known sector of associations and charitable organisations at the beginning of the 21st century. It provides first‐hand accounts of crucial issues that did not receive scholarly attention before the uprising - such as the shift in state-society relations, the opening of the civic arena, the partial outsourcing of welfare provision and social responsibilities and, eventually, the unravelling of the old social contract, which the protest movement dramatically brought to the forefront in 2011. By carrying out a unique analysis of the management of civil society by state institutions and the First Lady's government-operated NGOs, it also provides keys to understanding both the resilience of Bashar al-Asad's authoritarian regime in the 2000s and the simultaneous weakening of its credibility amongst the population.

Review Quotes

This study provides a powerful and much-needed correction to those studying the Syrian uprising and war with little appreciation of the pre-2011 era. Laura Ruiz de Elvira is the person to do it as her research on the country encompasses nearly two decades. Charities and Politics in Bashar al-Asad's Syria presents a narrative that is illuminating, heartbreaking and hopeful all at once.--Reinoud Leenders, King's College London