A socialist realist painting of President Hafez al-Assad surrounded by a loving crowd at the October War Museum, 1985In the context of Syria, al-Infiraj (also known as intifah) refers to the socialist policy of economic liberalization announced by President Hafez al-Assad shortly after coming to power in 1970. Infiraj was part of Assad's broader, all-encompassing reform campaign known as the Corrective Movement program. While the Infiraj policy did bring some liberalization, it did not mark a shift in Syria away from its socialist economy, which centered on five-year development plans, inspired by a Soviet example—management remained strictly centralized in the hands of the ruling Ba'ath Party, with the public sector dominating the private sector, which still faced a number of restrictions. Infiraj was considered to be quite successful overall, as Syria experienced significant economic development during the 1970s. However, it was claimed that the infiraj policy reforms were less extensive than those in Tunisia and Egypt. The main architect of the Infiraj policy was the US-educated Syrian economist Dr. Muhammad al-Imadi, who was the Minister of Economy at the time.
