For a fistful of pesetas? The political economy of the army in a nonconsolidated democracy: the Second Spanish Republic and Civil War (1931–9)

The civil war that has engulfed the Syrian Arab Republic, since March 2011, is set to unleash a lasting effect on both the political and socio-economic trajectories of the country. The country’s political and economic challenges would be in dire need of outside-the-box curatives long after the violence activities are over. In other words, the political economy of Syria would encounter a set of unparalleled interconnected difficulties that cannot be unriddled by a simple prescription of traditional textbook economic policies. Even though the Syrian economy was able to weather the global economic recession in 2008, it is apparent that, if the country wants to pull through future economic shocks while upholding both political and social stability it desires, then it needs to overhaul its administrative and economic structures. The country’s economy was already in dire difficulties long before the conflict. The most important foreign exchange earner of the country was oil, but production was in sharp decline. In the 1990s, oil output almost doubled. However, in 2002, it fell from a peak of 677,000 barrels per day. Again, only 327,000 bpd were produced in 2011. The civil war has killed over a million Syrians and displaced more than 5.5 million citizens of the country. The country’s economy slumped by over 80 percent from 2010 to 2019. The extreme violence that dominated the scene in Syria has shifted attention away from the deep structural transformations affecting the country’s economy and governance structures. Now that violence has considerably subsided, these are becoming more visible. Much has been written about the ethnic and sectarian divisions in the conflict in Syria. However, very little attention is given to its political economy, which is very crucial in understanding the taproots of the ongoing war. The contraction of the economy of the country and the emergence of a war economy have seriously affected the composition and stratification of the political economy of Syria. This study seeks to examine the political economy of the Syrian civil war, including the exposition of the conditions of the Syrian economy before and during the war, the changing dynamics of the war, and the roles of external players.

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10. The Political Economy of Civil War in Lebanon

War, Institutions, and Social Change in the Middle East ◽

10.1525/9780520925229-011 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 292-322

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Civil War ◽

The Political

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Conflict and compromise: the political economy of slavery, emancipation, and the American Civil War

Choice Reviews Online ◽

10.5860/choice.27-6548 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 27 (11) ◽

pp. 27-6548-27-6548

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Civil War ◽

American Civil War ◽

The Political

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Herrenvolk Capitalism

Historical Materialism ◽

10.1163/1569206x-12341410 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 298-312

Author(s):

Troy Vettese

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Civil War ◽

Gulf Of Mexico ◽

American Civil War ◽

The Political ◽

Industrial Economy ◽

Wide Range ◽

Imperial Expansion ◽

Theoretical Issues

Walter Johnson’s River of Dark Dreams is a book on the political economy of the Mississippi basin in the six decades before the American Civil War. The book’s three aims are to show, firstly, the racial, ecological, gender, and economic contradictions inherent within this society; secondly, the mechanisms of power maintaining a slave-holding oligarchy; and finally, its attempts at imperial expansion in the Gulf of Mexico. This book is exceptional as an example of integrating a wide range of poststructuralist approaches within a Marxist framework. Johnson mixes methods to vividly portray the ‘Cotton Kingdom’ as a vital, imperialist and capitalist polity that was in no way in decline, but rather the centre of the global industrial economy. This book is excellent, but flawed for avoiding theoretical issues and because Johnson is unable to prove broad support for private imperialist adventurers (‘filibusters’).

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