Charities and Politics in Bashar Al-Asad’s Syria: The Unravelling of the Old Social Contract

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration List of Abbreviations Introduction: Syrian Charities as a Scientific Object 1 Syrian Charities in the Twentieth Century 2 Civil Society and Charities in Bashar al-Asad’s Era 3 Collective Action and Funding Strategies of Syrian Charities 4 Getting Committed in Syrian Charitable Associations 5 Local Strategies through a Hirschmanian Lens 6 Participation and Outsourcing: A New Grammar of Public Action in Syria 7 The State as Conceiver, Legislator and Manager 8 The Controlling, Disciplining and Repressive State Conclusion: The Syrian Uprising or the Unravelling of the Social Contract Appendix 1 Map of the Population of the Main Syrian Cities Appendix 2 Summary Table of the Syrian Associations Visited Appendix 3 Signs and Banners from Syrian Charities Appendix 4 Brochures from Syrian Charities Appendix 5 Products of Syrian Charities Appendix 6 Extracts from the English Version of the Tenth Five-Year Plan of the Syrian Arab Republic (Chapter 6, Section 4) Appendix 7 Reports and Balance Sheets from Syrian Charities Appendix 8 Table of Public Finances (2003–9) Appendix 9 Syrian Press References Index