Why did Syria transition from a laissez-faire to a statist economy between 1946 and 1954? Existing scholarship proposes a political or class-based explanation: the anti-colonial old bourgeoisie that inherited power after independence was so discredited by its record of economic mismanagement, cronyism, and defeat in the 1948 war that army officers felt obliged to intervene.
Subsequent military regimes oversaw the implementation of a ‘social pact’ that promised economic development in exchange for political quiescence. Yet why did Syrian officers, industrialists, and entrepreneurs adopt this variant of state interventionism?
Daniel Neep presents his paper explaining the shift by using a constructivist historical institutionalist approach to emphasise the importance of ideas in producing economic shifts.
Event Details
Speaker: Daniel Neep, Georgetown University
Chair: Professor Toby Dodge, LSE
Date: Thursday 29 October 2015
Time: 16.00-18.00
Location: Vera Anstey Room, Old Building, LSE
Event Hashtag: #LSENeep
Attendance: This is a registration only event. Registration has now closed.
Speaker
Daniel Neep is Assistant Professor in political science at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.