Asad's bureaucracy is corrupt and sclerotic. However, Baathism is populist and the regime has made a doctrinaire effort to narrow the gap between rich and poor. New President Bashar al Asad reputedly wants to bring Syria into the information age. If he succeeds, Syrians will owe the father a debt of gratitude. Maintaining order Asad presided over the 1982 massacre of Syrian citizens in Hamah, years of bloody participation in the Lebanese civil war, and several political assassinations, notably those of Lebanese rivals Kamal Junblatt and Bashir Jumayyil.
American officials issue ritual recommendations for Arab adoption of democratic forms of government.
At the present stage, however, any bold experiment with democracy would probably go the way of the Quwwatli government, overthrown by Syria's first of many military coups in 1949. Even Washington's enthusiasm for Arab democracy fails to withstand close examination, witness the devout alliance with the royal house of Sa'ud. Since the accidental death of his older son in 1994, Asad had been grooming second son Bashar for the succession. Catapulting this improbable figure into the presidency is a perversion of Baathist democracy, but if the mild-mannered ophthalmologist steps into a phone booth and emerges as a caped benevolent dictator, the electorate may come to consider itself well served. Issues of rivers, minorities, and irredentism divide Syria from Turkey, but Asad was careful to avoid armed conflict.