Following the independence of Syria from France at the end of World War II, the new Syrian Republic was constituted as a parliamentary democracy. Despite a brief period of military dictatorship under Adib Shishakli during the early 1950s, parliamentarism was restored in 1954. However, power was still largely concentrated in the hands of the military, with the weakness of the parliamentary system leading to the rise of socialist and nationalist ideologies, particularly Nasserism and Ba'athism. After briefly uniting with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic, a coup d'état restored Syrian independence in 1961. But an unstable political climate led to another coup d'état in 1963, which brought Syria under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.