A good read on the history of Syria [View all]
And why I think we won't get to a democracy anytime soon.
Syria went from colonial rule ( french) to attempts at creating a constitutional monarchy. This went on until post ww2 where they got freedom from the french rule. It was followed by years of military coups until the Assad regime ( Bashar al Assad father) took over.
They have a long road ahead. Turkey is probably going to try and influence the process, because of the kurd presence in Syria made up of Turkish opponents, Israel is of course bombing them ( this seems to be Netanyahu's idea of international diplomacy) , Russia is going to try and hang onto their only naval base on the mediteranean and of course Trump is going to fuck it all up.
https://constitutionnet.org/country/syria