CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Varszegi, Denes Benedek |
|---|---|
| Title | Exiting Westphalia: Democratic Confederalism and the Reproduction of Statehood |
| Summary | This thesis investigates the implementation of democratic confederalism by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), with a particular focus on its interaction with the structures of modern statehood and global capitalism. Operationalising the ideological tenets of Abdullah Öcalan, the chapter below answer whether the polity could meaningfully depart from the Westphalian state model and capitalist economic structures. The analysis combines secondary sources with qualitative data from video interviews conducted with locally active experts and civil society members, as well as written statements provided directly by DAANES officials. The findings suggest that while the DAANES articulates a strong ideological commitment to decentralisation, social ecology, and cooperative economics, its political and economic institutions reflect significant continuity with statist and capitalist dynamics. Centralised political control, extractive economic practices, and reliance on oil exports persist, shaped in part by the material constraints of war, foreign intervention, and regional instability. The thesis concludes that despite rhetorical efforts to transcend statehood and capitalist modernity, the DAANES remains embedded in many of the structures it seeks to overcome. |
| Supervisor | Dóra Piroska |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/varszegi_benedek.pdf |
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