This special issue of Siyasat Arabiya examines some of the key dimensions of Syria’s transition, moving beyond day-to-day developments and speculation about political outcomes that remain highly uncertain. Instead, it focuses on structural questions likely to shape the transition: the constitutional and institutional legacy of the former regime, changing relations between the regime and its social base during the war, evolving understandings of national identity, the challenges of rebuilding the state and forging a new social contract, and the nature of the emerging political institutions. Particular attention is given to whether these institutions can break with the personalized and clientelist patterns of rule that defined the previous era. The fall of the regime is therefore approached not simply as the end of a historical period, but as the beginning of a more complex process of reshaping the state, political authority, society, and the relations among them.
The issue also engages with the broader literature on revolutions, political transitions, democratization, and state-building in the Arab region. Comparative perspectives on institutions and elites, civil–military relations, external intervention, identity, sectarianism, and citizenship provide a useful framework for examining Syria without mechanically applying models drawn from other experiences. Syria combines the challenges of moving beyond authoritarian rule with the consequences of a prolonged war, extensive regional and international intervention, weakened state institutions, and the need to establish new sources of political legitimacy. This makes the Syrian case particularly important for reassessing existing approaches to political transition and, potentially, refining them in light of Syria’s own experience.
