Part 10/14:
By the late 20th century, both Syria and Iraq suffered economic decline, corruption, and loss of credibility. Iraq’s GDP per capita plummeted from around $3,900 in 1979 to below $1,000 by the late 1990s, ravaged by war, sanctions, and internal mismanagement. Syria fared only slightly better, with stagnant economic growth, massive corruption, and a membership base that had become more about securing elite privileges than ideological conviction. The regimes fostered patronage networks, exemplified by Bashar al-Assad’s inheritance of the presidency through nepotism rather than merit or consensus.