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Syria GOVERNMENT
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Figure 13. Governmental System, 1987
Source: Syrian Statistical Yearbook, 1986
Unavailable
The water tower is often a symbol of government services in
rural areas.
The President and the Cabinet
The president is elected for a seven-year term by universal
suffrage. A candidate to the office must be a Syrian Arab Muslim,
at least forty years of age, proposed by the Baath Party, and
nominated by the People's Council. The nominee is submitted to a
national referendum. To be elected, the candidate must receive an
absolute majority of votes cast. If not, a new candidate must be
selected by the Baath Party for formal nomination by the People's
Council.
The Constitution states that in the case of the president's
temporary disablement, the vice president becomes acting
president. However, in 1982 Assad named three vice presidents--
Foreign Minister Abd al Halim Khaddam, Rifaat al Assad, and Baath
Party deputy director Zuhayr Mashariqa--but none of the three was
specifically designated as successor. If the presidency falls
vacant by resignation or death, a referendum must be held within
ninety days to elect a new president. Under certain
circumstances, the prime minister may exercise presidential
functions for up to ninety days.
The president cannot be removed except for high treason.
Impeachment proceedings may be initiated through a petition
signed by one-third of the members of the People's Council voting
openly or by a petition of two-thirds of the council members
voting at a special closed session. The president can be tried
only by the High Constitutional Court, of which he is a member.
The president is both the head of state and the chief
executive officer of the government. He is vested with sweeping
powers that may be delegated, at his sole discretion, to his vice
presidents. The president is also commander in chief of the armed
forces. He appoints and dismisses the prime minister and other
members of the Council of Ministers (the cabinet) and military
officers.
Apart from executive authority relating to a wide range of
governmental functions including foreign affairs, the president
has the right to dissolve the People's Council, in which case a
new council must be elected within ninety days from the date of
dissolution. He may also exercise legislative power when the
council is in recess, provided that all legislative acts
promulgated by him are submitted to the legislature for approval
at its first subsequent session. The Constitution also empowers
the president to preempt legislative power even while the
People's Council is in session "in case of absolute need relating
to national security." It states, however, that all presidential
decrees must be presented to the legislature for its endorsement.
The council may, by a two-thirds vote, amend or rescind
presidential decrees, provided that the two-thirds majority
constitutes no fewer than the absolute majority of the council
membership. The council's power to amend or nullify a
presidential decree is only nominal, inasmuch as the council's
action, whether for amendment or abrogation, is not to have a
"retroactive effect."
Under the Constitution, presidential authority extends also
to the broadly phrased "right to submit to popular referendum
important matters relating to the higher interests of the
country." However, the question of what constitutes "higher
interests" is left undefined. The results of such a referendum
are "binding and executory with effect from the date of their
promulgation" by the president. The presidential emergency power
granted under Article 113 provides a mandate that is beyond any
legal challenge: "In case of grave danger threatening national
unity or the security and independence of the national territory
or impeding the government's exercise of its constitutional
prerogatives, the President of the Republic has the right to take
appropriate emergency measures." This article has been in effect
since the late 1960s
(see Crime and Punishment
, ch. 5).
The Council of Ministers, headed by the prime minister, is
responsible to the president and serves collectively as the
executive and administrative arm of the president and of the
state. A cabinet member can also be a member of the People's
Council and, if so, is not answerable to the legislature for his
official conduct while acting as a cabinet member.
As of 1987, the Council of Ministers had last been reshuffled
in April 1985. The council was headed by Prime Minister Abd ar
Rauf al Kassim, who had served as prime minister since 1980, and
three deputy prime ministers, who also held the portfolios of
defense, services, and economic affairs. Ministers were in charge
of the following portfolios: agriculture and agrarian reform,
communications, construction, culture and national guidance,
defense, economy and foreign trade, education, electricity,
finance, foreign affairs, health, higher education, housing and
utilities, industry, information, interior, irrigation, justice,
local administration, oil and mineral wealth, religious trusts
(waqfs), social affairs and labor, supply and internal
trade, tourism, and transportation. In addition, the Council of
Ministers included ministers of state for cabinet affairs,
foreign affairs, planning affairs, People's Council affairs, and
presidential affairs and three newly elected ministers of state
without portfolio.
Data as of April 1987
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