Arab socialism

Arab socialism (Arabic: الإشتِراكيّة العربية, romanized: Al-Ishtirākīya Al-'Arabīya) is a political ideology based on the combination of pan-Arabism or Arab nationalism and socialism. The term Arab socialism was coined by Michel Aflaq, the principal founder of Ba'athism and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Syria, to distinguish his version of socialist ideology from the international socialist movement. While distinct from the much broader tradition of socialist thought in the Arab world, which predates Arab socialism by as much as fifty years, direct influence and evolutions of his thought, Marxist or otherwise, were realized and expanded upon in countries like Syria, Egypt, Iraq and others. A main innovation of Aflaq's thought was the transformation of Arab unity from an intellectual ideal into a real-world political pursuit of rights alongside a new set of socioeconomic conditions. Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt in particular served as a potent vehicle for Aflaq's thought, and would have to grapple with crises in the intellectual and military spheres.

Ideology and historical practice

Early development

Niqula Haddad, the brother-in-law of Farah Antun, was a Syrian writer from an Orthodox Christian family who arguably wrote the first book on socialism in Arabic, titled al-Ishtirakiyah, in the early twentieth century. Haddad believed in a welfare state where the government would supply employment, medicine, school, and old age pensions. Haddad, along with Antun and Catholic-born Shibli Shumayyil, is credited with influencing the works of Salama Moussa, a well-known Egyptian writer from a Coptic family who wrote about Egyptian nationalism and later founded a short-lived socialist party in Egypt.

Original meaning in Aflaq's writings

The spawning of Arab socialism is thought to be a product of two developments in Aflaq's life: of the intellectual labor spent studying European philosophy in Paris, and his practice in the Arab political sphere. It can be considered monist given that the concept of Arab unity was both the origin and main goal of his project.