The Revolutionary Fever in the Syrian Crisis

By studying the internal factors of the 2011 crisis in Syria, this article aims to describe causes led to the self-stimulation of some Syrian people in fighting against the Assad government and in attempting to change the political system of the country. Investigation of the Syrian crisis indicates that beside the extensive support from the outside borders, the Assad government naturally and inevitably has prepared the opportunity for the popular revolts to occur, and resulted in the conversion of public hatred into a revolution. Based on Crane Brinton’s findings in the book “The Anatomy of Revolution”, it seems that Syria’s crisis is almost consistent and uniformed like the pattern of four revolutions which Brinton studied. Symptoms such as: existence of a tyranny and its inability to suppress revolutionaries severely and completely, and also the prevalence of the notions like idealism and liberalism among revolutionaries, which had a fundamental role in providing necessary and sufficient objective and subjective aspects for the revolution, are also observed in Syria’s crisis. While investigating the internal factors of the crisis, this article tries to describe the symptoms of revolutionary fever which has resulted into this crisis. This article concludes that the internal symptoms of Syria’s revolutionary fever can be categorized in four categories: 1- the historical hardship that had dominated the country since a long time ago, and during Hafez Assad era, resumed with an unexampled suppression, and left its effects on Bashar Assad’s reign; 2- presence of extremist and Salafi groups in this crisis which has resulted in advent of extremism in the country and rejection of any compromise and talk with the government; 3- political, economic and social inefficiency of Syria’s system that blemished its legitimacy and failed to suppress opposition groups; 4- the political discourse of the government system as a result of resistance discourse against Israel and the great powers. Focus on these issues and through descriptive and analytical methods, the article has utilized library resources, news sites, newspapers and field sources through interviews with Syrian students in Iran and cognizant people.

Crisis, Syria, Legitimacy, Bashar Assad, Revolution.