Overview

How do governments contribute to galvanizing public hostility against state institutions? And what are the consequences of undermining the state as a strategy for political change? State Atrophy in Syria highlights how the appropriation of state institutions by public officials limits public capacity to demand accountability from government without having to challenge the state or its institutions. This creates consequential trade-offs for the public. As the Syrian case demonstrates, the undermining of state institutions failed to depose the dictatorship, continuously benefitted Assad's foreign allies, Russia and Iran, and engendered unprecedented levels of predatory practices against the public. As Syria continues to play a strategic role on the world's political stage, the book outlines the country's tragic decade and derives lessons for state-society relations in Syria and beyond.

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9781399510264

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"""It is gratifying to see how recent methodical reflections on contemporary Syria are bearing fruit, enriched by intensive research, and new analytical departures. Akdedian's granular analysis of state capture, sectarianism, the multiform devolution of state power and authority, of the salience of locality and the virtual effacement of the private/public distinction in many domains, shows these to be dynamic processes with agency, novelty and considerable complexity. Having read this book, it would no longer be conscionable to spin stories of primordialism, nor tropes of return to an authentic past."" -Aziz Al-Azmeh, Central European University"

Author Information

Harout Akdedian is program analyst at the Oregon Department of Justice's Civil Rights Unit. He is a visiting scholar at Portland State University's Middle East Studies Centre, and associate fellow at the Central European University's Centre for Religious Studies. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of New England.

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