Syria is ever been a flux of ruling and rulers, and that flux is not settled by established rules, order and law, such as we have enjoyed in the US and Britan for hundreds of years, It is ad hoc, by coup, by death, by presented opportunity.
The "Baath" party rules as I understand from reading in that it has persisted through changes and so it enjoys a "name branding" maybe more than anything we might ascibe to it by politics. Politics there is connections, and balance of powers, of forces, those forces are family, sect, and international, one's political allies easily cross borders. and positions of power in most of those Arab states can only be held by balancing one's allies and one's enenies as much abroad as at home -- and in the case of Syria, the current ruler may have burdened his Iraqi Baath connections too much for his own good.