Iraq’s Fledgling Democracy ([Special Feature] Political Change and Migration from the Middle East)

Experiment and Impediments

Abstract

The mass protests that swept Iraqi cities in November 2019 demonstrates that democracy in the country is in its transitional phase. Ordinary people have taken to the streets to show their frustration against the ruling political parties in Baghdād. The toppling of Ṣaddām’s regime in 2003 led to the establishment of a consociational democracy to solve the sectarian divisions in Iraq. Controlled by the main political parties, this system has become an obstacle in the way of consolidating Iraq’s democracy. Iraqi political parties have dominated and controlled democracy in the name of their sects and groups. Iraqi citizens feel excluded from political process though they participate in voting in regular elections. External factors, notably, rivalry between the Saudi Arabia and Iran has intensified the internal divisions in Iraq and created the ground for communal mutual mistrust. Other economic and social issues have also raised many questions about the credibility of Iraq’s democracy especially after the steady decline of oil prices. Civil society organizations and small splitting groups represented the backbone of recent demonstrations and will contribute to ‘learning democracy’ and developing the process of democratization in Iraq.