Agrarian Reform Policies in Syria .

1963-1970 Between Socialist Discourse and Economic Reconomic reality

Abstract

The policies of 1963-1970 reduced agrarian reform to a broad process of confiscation, used to re-engineer the countryside socially and politically, not economically. While they achieved a partial change in the social structure by reducing traditional feudalism, the socialist discourse transformed from a tool of liberation into a mechanism of authoritarianism that masked the state's dominance over the countryside through a bureaucratic network.

The research is divided into three sections. The first section analyzes the agricultural policies pursued by the Syrian government during the period 1963-1970. The second section examines the socialist discourse adopted by the Syrian government during this period. The third section evaluates the economic reality of agrarian reform policies in Syria. The research concludes with a conclusion that addresses the most important findings. The conclusion is that the agrarian reform policy transformed Syria from a food-exporting country to a wheat importer, beginning in 1974. It created a generation of bankrupt peasants who later became a base for protest (the 1976-1982 uprising). It also established the model of "political rent," whereby land became a tool for sectarian and tribal quotas during the Assad era.