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the Arab League &_160;v&_160;•&_160;d&_160;•&_160;e&_160; Arab socialism represents a historically important political trend in the Arab world, although its influence has since diminished. The intellectual and political influence of Arab socialism peaked during the 1950s and 60s, when it constituted the ideological basis of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and, to a lesser extent, of the Nasserist movement. The term "Arab socialism" was coined by Michel ‘Aflaq, one of the founders of the Ba'ath Party, in order to distinguish his version of socialist ideology from the internationalist Marxist socialism in Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia, and the Western European thought of social democracy. For its adherents, Arab socialism was a necessary consequence of the quest for Arab unity and freedom, as only a socialist system of property and development would overcome the social and economic legacy of colonialism. At the same time, Arab socialism widely differs from the Eastern Europe and Eastern Asian socialist movements, which were atheist and internationalist. Unlike their Chinese counterparts, the basis of Arab nationalism is not ethnic, but cultural and spiritual. Thus, the "anti-spiritual" socialism of Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia was considered ill-adapted to the Arab world. While Arab socialism endorsed much of the economic and social programme of Eastern European-style socialism, its divergent intellectual and spiritual foundations imposed some limits on its revolutionary potential The ownership of the means of production was to be nationalized, but only within the constraints of traditional values such as private property and inheritance. "Primitive" social structures such as feudalism, nomadism, tribalism, religious factionalism, and the oppression of women were to be overcome, but not at the cost of severing the social ties that constituted the Arab identity.
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