The Baʿth Party , appearing in the mid-twentieth century, embodied the political institutionalisation of Arab nationalism in what were then newly independent Arab states. The party was present in several Arab states, most notably in Syria and Iraq in the second half of the twentieth century, where it transformed the state and its mode of governance. Promoting Arab unity, sovereignty, and socialism, this highly hierarchical party whose ambition it was to bring social and political revolution to the Arab people, imposed the rule of authoritarian leaders. The Arab Socialist Resurrection (