2 - Party and governance

Summary

Authoritarian politics are shaped by two factors: a conflict between the ruler and the ruled, defined as “the problem of authoritarian control,” and a conflict between the ruler and his partners in power, termed “the problem of authoritarian power-sharing.” In the Arab republics, as part of solving the first “problem,” the regimes relied on the autocracy of their hegemonic parties to sustain their rule. In two countries, Syria and Iraq, there were single-party systems, while in Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria it was called a multi-party system, but in reality these definitions of single or multi are superfluous because the ruling party in all these republics behaved in a more or less similar fashion. In fact, after independence, Algeria and Tunisia began with a single party and then moved to what was portrayed as multi-party rule. In most republics, there was a structure of two interlocking pyramids: the state and the party, ruled with substantial overlap between the two, allowing the state to control and monitor the party. This is very similar to the classic communist model.

Although the dictatorial regimes in single-party countries occasionally included other groups or factions, this never constituted a true multi-party system, which was apparently not an impediment to any of the regimes that hosted regional conferences for Arab parties. Damascus twice hosted such a conference under the auspices of Bashar al-Asad, and no irony was intended in the document issued by the second conference declaring that “democracy and political pluralism are the exemplary means for the conduct of relations between the ruler and the ruled, and in building the state's institutions.”

In Libya, about two years after the coup d'état that brought him to power, Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi announced the formation of the Arab Socialist Union as a single-party system styled after its Egyptian counterpart. Two years later, this ill-equipped party was abandoned when popular committees were created to encourage the masses to participate in the system. The leadership wanted to create a society without a parliament or governing party, based on Qaddafi's philosophy, as laid out in his Green Book, that “the party is the contemporary dictatorship. It is the modern dictatorial instrument of governing. The party is the rule of a part over the whole.” Asked how he wanted history to remember him, Qaddafi replied: “For having implemented direct democracy in my country.