 Complete the following phrase:  Following the independence of Syria from France at the end of World War II, the new Syrian Republic was constituted as a parliamentary democracy. Despite a brief period of military dictatorship under Adib Shishakli during the early 1950s, parliamentarism was restored in 1954. However, power was still largely concentrated in the hands of the military, with the weakness of the parliamentary system leading to the rise of socialist and nationalist ideologies, particularly Nasserism and Baathism. After briefly uniting with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic, a coup détat restored Syrian independence in 1961. But an unstable political climate led to another 