The Ba'athist government in Syria was constructed by General Hafez al-Assad, who came to power through a coup in 1970 and purged the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party of rivals led by Salah Jadid.
The regime structure consisted of three parts: a powerful Ba'ath party organization which has extensive control over the Syrian society, a formidable security apparatus – consisting of secret police, Ba'athist paramilitaries and Syrian military establishment – glued to the party's Central Command, in addition to upper-class Alawite elites who are loyal to the Assad dynasty.
Hafez al-Assad's dictatorship lasted for three decades; characterized by extensive socio-political repression, censorship, human rights abuses, and systematic mass violence unleashed on civilian populations through brutal tactics such as massacres, forced disappearances and torture.
Syrian economy was largely supported by oil exports, which enabled to fund various industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism.
At the onset of the Arab Spring protests and eruption of Syrian revolution in 2011, Syria's economic situation was considered dire, with rising inflation, high unemployment rates, corruption and the socio-political atmosphere was characterized by heavy repression.
These were a direct consequence of economic liberalization of 2000s; which skyrocketed socio-economic inequalities, increased corruption and cronyism of party oligarchs; thereby drastically alienating the middle and working classes.
New monopolies in agrarian sector acquired by pro-government oligarchs and government's mismanagement of the droughts of 2006-11 worsened the living conditions of the peasants, causing widespread disenchantment and exacerbation of rural-urbal divisions.
The poverty rate had been steadily increasing since the early 2000s due to rising food prices, an influx of refugees, and a decrease in private sector employment.
[9][10] After winning the 2007 presidential election in Syria with 99.82% of the declared votes, Bashar al-Assad implemented numerous measures that further intensified political and cultural repression.
In 2007, the Syrian government enacted a law that forced Internet cafes to keep records of all online comments posted by users in chat forums, as well as their browsing habits.
In September 2010, The Economist newspaper described Syrian government as "the worst offender among Arab states", that engaged in imposing travel bans and restricted free movement of people.
[15] During the 1970s, Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad had created patronage networks of Ba'ath party elites and Alawite clients loyal to his family.
Members of Assad family established control over vast swathes of the Syrian economy and corruption became endemic in the public and private sectors.
[16] The first decade of Bashar al-Assad's rule was marked by the institutionalization of corruption, and many regime loyalists became business magnates under the cover of state's "social market" policies.
[17][18] The persistence of corruption, sectarian bias towards Alawites, nepotism and widespread bribery that existed in party, bureaucracy and military led to popular anger that resulted in the eruption of the 2011 Syrian Revolution.
The Syrian pound was in a state of decline before the war due to a combination of several factors, including macroeconomic mismanagement, a lack of foreign investment, and an over-reliance on oil exports.
Iran had provided Syria with economic and military support for decades, and the two countries shared strong ties in the areas of culture, trade, and politics.
The aim of the programme was to secure resource-rich and fertile northeastern Syria; so that the state could directly control the oil reserves and agricultural products.
[26] Tens of thousands of Kurds of the Al-Hasakah governorate were forcibly displaced and their lands were distributed to Arab settlers from other provinces for agricultural cultivation.
[23][27] In 2007, another such scheme in Al-Hasakah governate, 6,000 square kilometers around Al-Malikiyah were granted to Arab families, while tens of thousands of Kurdish inhabitants of the villages concerned were evicted.
US sanctions also included a ban on the export of certain goods and technologies to Syria, as well as restrictions on the travel of Syrian government personnel to the United States.
It is part of the same phenomenon and driven by the same basic causes – of stalled development, of unemployment and particularly youth unemployment.. as a result of the neo-liberal policies implemented by the Assads.... Syria is a country which has seen massive impoverishment over the last decade, especially in the rural areas; the level of poverty has been rising and reached a situation where almost one third of the population were below the national poverty line... All this was taking place against a background of huge social inequality, a very corrupt regime – where Bashar Assad's cousin became the richest man in the country, controlling – it is widely believed – over half of the economy...