Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung 126d ago

Abstract: This lecture explores the trajectory of state formation and governance in post-Assad Syria, framing it as an emerging neo-patrimonial theocracy characterized by exclusionary politics and deep social fragmentation. The transitional regime’s reliance on sectarian patronage networks and religious legitimation has politicized identity and institutionalized communal division, while repeated massacres and the absence of transitional justice have entrenched collective trauma and distrust. State–society relations are further distorted by the entrenchment of primitive neoliberal reforms that prioritize survivalist marketization over structural development, combined with extractive economic practices that concentrate resources within ruling coalitions and external patrons. The Syrian case highlights how neo-patrimonial and theocratic logics converge with authoritarian coercion and external dependency to produce a fragile, exclusionary order. About the Speaker: Rabie Nasser is a co-founder and the director of the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR), and researcher at the University of Vienna. He has a MSc in Economics from Leicester University, UK. Before joining SCPR, Nasser worked for the State Planning Commission as Chief Economist and Director of the Macroeconomic Directorate. Afterwards, he worked as an Economic Researcher at the Arab Planning Institute