'Patriotic Education' under the Assad Regime: Democracy

[For prior parts in this series, see the following]:

(i) The Political System Explained
(ii) Terrorism and Racism

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Although the Assad regime was accurately characterised as a dictatorship, the regime nonetheless sought to present itself to the populace as embodying a democratic system and accordingly taught the concept of democracy as part of the subject of ‘patriotic education’ (tarbiya wataniya), which, in its most recent iteration, highlighted the ‘local administration’ system (outlined in a law passed in August 2011, and represented in provincial, town and locality councils) as embodying a kind of ‘participatory democracy’ and de-centralised administration.