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Syrian charities have become key actors within the Syrian civil society during the last ten years... more Syrian charities have become key actors within the Syrian civil society during the last ten years. Actually, in the context of the economic liberalization, charities – as other kind of NGOs – have experienced an important growth and a significant renewal in terms of the methods and the projects being undertaken. The aim of this paper is to provide a deeper analysis of the state / Charities relation during Bashar al-Asad‟s first decade. We will argue that the development of this sector has been actively encouraged by the Syrian authorities, who conceive these social structures as an efficient way to partially “off-load” the state from, at least, a part of its welfare responsibilities. We will show indeed throughout which mechanisms this support has been regularly provided (registration facilities, land donations, official visits, etc.). Notwithstanding, we will argue, the state / charities relation does not limit itself to the reinforcement of these organizations by the public administration. On the contrary, we will demonstrate how the expansion of this sector has been accompanied by the attempt to redeploy the state and to upgrade the mechanisms that permit to control and disciplinarize these activities (registration of previous non-registered charities, creation of GO-NGOs, etc.). Finally, we will supply some examples of the repressive and the coercive measures that can be extraordinary undertaken against charities (banning religious leaders from the boards of directors, dissolution of boards of directors, etc.).
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Papers (in journals and edited volumes)
Adam Roberts / Michael Willis / Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil resistance in the Arab Spring: triumphs and disasters, 2016
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Giacomo Luciani /Steffen Hertog/ Marc Valerie (eds.): Beyond Cronyism? Business Politics in the Arab World, 2013
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Steven Heydemann / Reinoud Leenders (eds.): Middle East Authoritarianisms: Governance and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran, 2013
This chapter explores the impact of external linkages on regime resilience in Syria and Iran, con... more This chapter explores the impact of external linkages on regime resilience in Syria and Iran, concentrating on the decade from 9/11 to 2010, a period that provides rich opportunities for analysis of this phenomenon. The power of authoritarian regimes relied on their management of participation pressures. The internationalization of coalitions tried to widen contestation. The Syrian Ba'th regime has always depended on foreign policy for much of its capital. Economic liberalization was congruous with a simultaneous incremental expansion of elite-level contestation and shrinkage of popular inclusion and, far from driving democratization, sustained authoritarian adaptation in the short run. External financial and political resources initially had similar benefits for authoritarian resilience in Syria and Iran. Both regimes presented rebellions, but their locations in opposing sectors of society were indicative of the differential effect of external resources on the restructuring of their social bases.
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International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES), May 2014
This article reads Bashar al-Asad’s rule through the prism of social activism and, in particular,... more This article reads Bashar al-Asad’s rule through the prism of social activism and, in particular, through the field of charities. The sociopolitical transformations Syria experienced between 2000 and 2010—the shift in state-society relations, the opening of the civic arena, and economic liberalization—are explored through the activities of charitable associations, including their interactions with other Syrian actors, and we argue that they reflect the unraveling of the old social contract. The Syrian leadership outsourced important state welfare functions to charities while also creating NGOs under its own control and supporting developmental NGOs loyal to the regime. These NGOs differed from the existing charities in terms of their social base, financial backgrounds, motivations, modes of institutionalization, and public relations strategies, and enabled the authoritarian regime to pursue a new strategy of divide-and-rule politics. At the same time, subcontracting poor-relief measures to charities eroded the regime’s political legitimacy and helped sow the seeds of the 2011 uprising.
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op-eds
The Current Column, DIE, 2020
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Papers
SSRN Electronic Journal
This working paper investigates what effects cash-for-work (CfW) can have on local economic devel... more This working paper investigates what effects cash-for-work (CfW) can have on local economic development (LED). It is based on the hypothesis that CfW, which is targeted provision of jobs to vulnerable households, affects LED directly (through employment and income for workers and the creation of public goods) but also indirectly (through multiplier and investment effects as well as better social cohesion). The article builds on quantitative and qualitative research conducted in Jordan in 2019, Jordan being a particularly interesting case for the topic: Here, different foreign donors have set up a whole bunch of different CfW programmes after 2016 to support Syrian refugees along with vulnerable Jordanians. The results confirm that CfW has an indirect impact on LED through multiplier effects since CfW participants spend most of their income locally. In addition, CfW programmes in Jordan improve the skills and employability of their participants. This upgrading does not transform into higher employment rates, however, because the Jordanian labour market is extremely tight. Finally, the programmes empower women; they open new doors to the labour market and contribute to a – however not irrevocable – change of traditional gender roles. Our suggestion is thus that other refugee host countries set up CfW programmes as well, covering both refugees and low-income nationals.
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Social Sciences
Social contracts and state fragility represent two sides of one coin. The former concept highligh... more Social contracts and state fragility represent two sides of one coin. The former concept highlights that governments need to deliver three “Ps”—protection, provision, and political participation—to be acceptable for societies, whereas the latter argues that states can fail due to lack of authority (inhibiting protection), capacity (inhibiting provision), or legitimacy. Defunct social contracts often lead to popular unrest. Using empirical evidence from the Middle East and North Africa, we demonstrate how different notions of state fragility lead to different kinds of grievances and how they can be remedied by measures of social protection. Social protection is always a key element of government provision and hence a cornerstone of all social contracts. It can most easily counteract grievances that were triggered by decreasing provision (e.g., after subsidy reforms in Iran and Morocco) but also partially substitute for deficient protection (e.g., by the Palestinian National Authority...
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The European Journal of Development Research
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The European Journal of Development Research
Cash-for-Work (CfW)/public works programmes have gained great interest recently because they can ... more Cash-for-Work (CfW)/public works programmes have gained great interest recently because they can deliver employment and income for vulnerable households, in addition to dearly needed infrastructure. Studying donor-funded CfW programmes for Syrian refugees and their local neighbours in Jordan we show that CfW can also improve social cohesion, which is particularly important in the context of state fragility and migration. The studied programmes strengthen the sense of belonging and horizontal trust of participants and non-participants, refugees and locals, and in particular women. Their effect on vertical trust, however, is more ambiguous because many Syrians and Jordanians attribute positive effects to donor support rather than to Jordanian authorities. We use a mixed method approach including semi-structured interviews with 390 CfW participants, other community members and neutral observers and a quantitative analysis of a survey covering all 1847 participants of one CfW programme.
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This study explores to what extent the COVID-19 crisis affects the long-term prospects for indust... more This study explores to what extent the COVID-19 crisis affects the long-term prospects for industrial development. The focus of the study is on latecomer economies – those facing an uphill battle because they joined global markets at a point in time when other economies had already established global production networks.<br>In a first step, we analyse how the prospects for industrialisation are changing, mainly as a consequence of three global megatrends: digitalisation and automation of production; global economic power shifts; and the greening of economies. These trends create new opportunities for latecomer industrialisation, but they also raise entry barriers to markets, especially for country with weak innovation systems.<br>We then explore COVID-19 effects through the analytical lens of the pre-COVID megatrends. While the pandemic has had a severe impact on the world economy, such impacts will not change the ongoing trends fundamentally. The ongoing recovery from C...
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Social Sciences, 2021
Social contracts and state fragility represent two sides of one coin. The former concept highligh... more Social contracts and state fragility represent two sides of one coin. The former concept highlights that governments need to deliver three “Ps”—protection, provision, and political participation—to be acceptable for societies, whereas the latter argues that states can fail due to lack of authority (inhibiting protection), capacity (inhibiting provision), or legitimacy. Defunct social contracts often lead to popular unrest. Using empirical evidence from the Middle East and North Africa, we demonstrate how different notions of state fragility lead to different kinds of grievances and how they can be remedied by measures of social protection. Social protection is always a key element of government provision and hence a cornerstone of all social contracts. It can most easily counteract grievances that were triggered by decreasing provision (e.g., after subsidy reforms in Iran and Morocco) but also partially substitute for deficient protection (e.g., by the Palestinian National Authority...
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The social contract is a key concept in social science literature focusing on state–society relat... more The social contract is a key concept in social science literature focusing on state–society relations. It refers to the "entirety of explicit or implicit agreements between all relevant societal groups and the sovereign (i.e. the government or any other actor in power), defining their rights and obligations towards each other" (Loewe & Zintl, forthcoming). <br>The analysis of social contracts helps the understanding of: (i) why some societal groups are socially, politically or economically better off than others, (ii) why some revolt and demand a new social contract and, thus, (iii) why a country descends into violent conflict. In addition, the concept shows how foreign interventions and international co-operation may affect state–society relations by strengthening the position of the state or of specific societal groups. It illustrates that state fragility, displacement and migration can arise from social contracts becoming less inclusive.<br>Nevertheless, the...
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Triumphs and Disasters, 2016
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Governance, Contestation, and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran, 2013
ABSTRACT Examines how far external factors contributed to authoritarian regime resilience in Syri... more ABSTRACT Examines how far external factors contributed to authoritarian regime resilience in Syria and Iran, examining political capital (legitimacy from resistence to imperialism); financial capital (rent from aid and hydrocarbons) and human capital (such as the impact of returning or exiting expatriates.
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International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2014
This article reads Bashar al-Asad's rule through the prism of social activism and, in particu... more This article reads Bashar al-Asad's rule through the prism of social activism and, in particular, through the field of charities. The sociopolitical transformations Syria experienced between 2000 and 2010—the shift in state–society relations, the opening of the civic arena, and economic liberalization—are explored through the activities of charitable associations, including their interactions with other Syrian actors, and we argue that they reflect the unraveling of the old social contract. The Syrian leadership outsourced important state welfare functions to charities while also creating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) under its own control and supporting developmental NGOs loyal to the regime. These NGOs differed from the existing charities in terms of their social base, financial backgrounds, motivations, modes of institutionalization, and public relations strategies, and enabled the authoritarian regime to pursue a new strategy of divide-and-rule politics. At the same t...
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Der Gesellschaftsvertrag ist ein Schlüsselbegriff in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Literatur, der ... more Der Gesellschaftsvertrag ist ein Schlüsselbegriff in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Literatur, der auf die Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft fokussiert. Er bezeichnet die Gesamtheit expliziter oder impliziter Vereinbarungen zwischen allen relevanten gesellschaftlichen Gruppen und dem Souverän (d.h. der Regierung oder einem anderen Machthaber) über wechselseitige Rechte und Pflichten (Loewe & Zintl, forthcoming).<br>Die Analyse von Gesellschaftsverträgen verdeutlicht u.a. (i) warum einige Gesellschaftsgruppen sozial, politisch oder wirtschaftlich besser gestellt sind als andere, (ii) warum es Revolten und Forderungen nach neuen Gesellschaftsverträgen gibt, (iii) warum also manche Länder in Gewaltkonflikte abgleiten. Zudem zeigt das Konzept, dass externe Akteure die Bezie¬hungen zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft beeinflussen können, indem sie die Regierung oder bestimmte Gesellschafts¬gruppen stärken. Und es verdeutlicht, dass staatliche Fragilität, Flucht und Migration da...
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When Bashar al-Asad smoothly assumed power in July 2000, just seven days after the death of his f... more When Bashar al-Asad smoothly assumed power in July 2000, just seven days after the death of his father, observers were divided on what this would mean for the country's foreign and domestic politics. On the one hand, it seemed everything would stay the same: an Asad on top of a political system controlled by secret services and Baathist one-party rule. On the other hand, it looked like everything would be different: a young president with exposure to Western education who, in his inaugural speech, emphasized his determination to modernize Syria. This volume explores the ways in which Asad's domestic and foreign policy strategies during his first decade in power safeguarded his rule and adapted Syria to the age of globalization. The volume's contributors examine multiple aspects of Asad's rule in the 2000s, from power consolidation within the party and control of the opposition to economic reform, co-opting new private charities, and coping with Iraqi refugees. The Sy...
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