Fragile States: Syria

COHESION | POLITICAL | SOCIAL

Sebastian Aguilar - Daniela Gil -
64142086 Camila Martinez -
| EMI | 7/MAY/2018
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STATE LEGITIMACY

“The Arab Spring uprisings of

2011—including the protests
in Syria—boiled down to the
issue of political legitimacy.
Although motives varied,
there was a common thread
running through the 2011
events in Egypt, Tunisia,
Libya, Yemen, and Syria:
popular sentiment that the political systems dominating the lives of citizens were
rejecting totally the notion of deriving power from the consent of the governed. Yes, the
protests, uprisings, and rebellions did indeed reflect ‘report cards’ on the performances of
Mubarak, Ben Ali, Qaddafi, Saleh, and Assad. But they also reflected something far more
fundamental: the illegitimacy of political systems that substituted the will of the few for the
consent of the many.” (HOF, 2017)

A political system reflects legitimacy when something approaching the entirety of the
citizenry regards that system as right and just. When a system is legitimate, good and
bad presidents, prime ministers come and go: the system remains essentially unchanged
and fundamentally stable because the citizenry recognizes its government’s right to
govern; the citizenry consents to be governed by a given system even if a majority
considers the incumbent chief of state and/or head of government to be deficient.

The problem that exists in Syria with the legitimacy of the state is serious to the point that
the followers or those who have supported Assad consider the government as
illegitimate, and this is given, because they do not see a safe alternative, they recognize
that the Syrian state is a family business and that are somehow accustomed to this
because they have not seen any change since 1970 and have had to see how the
opposition over the years falls or is eliminated.

The legitimacy fell completely now when the state decided to fight the protests in a lethal
way and creating a war against its own people, eliminating any kind of acceptance on the
part of the Syrian population.

This illegitimacy created gaps in the state, which were filled by foreign agents such as
terrorist groups and local governments that created self-government, but the
humanitarian situation is so terrible that they make the prosecution of Assad and his
intimate circle something almost utopian and hopeless for the population.

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Referencias
HOF, F. C. (25 de OCTOBER de 2017). ATLANTIC COUNCIL: SYRIA SOURCE, Assad
and Legitimacy. Obtenido de ATLANTIC COUNCIL WEB SITE:
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/assad-and-legitimacy

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