Civil society after Saddam: oil unions and democracy in Iraq Isakhan, Benjamin 2013, Civil society after Saddam: oil unions and democracy in Iraq, in Lecture series of the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies 2013, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Beirut, Lebanon. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Civil society after Saddam: oil unions and democracy in Iraq Author(s) Isakhan, Benjamin Conference name Lecture series of the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (2013 : Beirut, Lebanon) Conference location Beirut, Lebanon Conference dates 15 Oct. 2013 Title of proceedings Lecture series of the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies 2013 Publication date 2013 Conference series Lecture series of the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies Total pages p Publisher American University of Beirut, Lebanon Place of publication Beirut, Lebanon Keyword(s) Iraq civil society democracy Summary Following the intervention in Iraq by coalition forces one decade ago, the Bush Administration underwent an enormous and unprecedented project to bring the ‘Western’ liberal model of democracy to Iraq. For the first few years the project to bring democracy to Iraq had its share of successes as the Iraqi people proved themselves capable of understanding and utilizing democratic mechanisms and institutions. This culminated in a series of nation-wide elections from 2005 onwards that brought a democratically elected government to power (Isakhan, 2012). However, one of the unfortunate consequences of the war and the US effort to bring democracy to Iraq was that many key ethno-religious political factions viewed it as an opportunity to pedal their own relatively narrow and very divisive political rhetoric (Davis, 2007). This meant that the Iraqi government was constituted not so much by a body who wanted to draw Iraq together behind a common ideology and to work towards a collective and egalitarian future, as it was by representatives who would fight on behalf of their ethno-religious constituencies. Not surprisingly, a great deal of academic literature has emerged which has analysed and criticised the formal political parties and institutions of the post-Saddam era (Dawisha, 2009). Indeed, the bulk of contemporary scholarship on Iraqi politics focuses on issues such as: the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of the Iraqi government; the obstinacy and ineptitude of many elements of Iraq’s political elite; the systemic corruption that is hollowing out the coffers of the state; the moribund bureaucracy that are struggling to deliver basic services and; of course, the deep-seated divisions within and between those that represent Iraq’s three main ethno-religious blocks: the Shia Arabs, the Sunni Arabs and the Kurds. Language eng Field of Research 160699 Political Science not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 940299 Government and Politics not elsewhere classified HERDC Research category E2 Full written paper - non-refereed / Abstract reviewed Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30060226 Document type: Conference Paper Collection: Faculty of Arts and Education   Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Tue, 04 Feb 2014, 13:41:52 EST Tue, 04 Feb 2014, 13:49:56 EST Wed, 05 Feb 2014, 08:58:56 EST Wed, 05 Feb 2014, 08:59:50 EST Wed, 05 Feb 2014, 09:01:06 EST Wed, 05 Feb 2014, 14:58:38 EST Wed, 05 Feb 2014, 15:00:32 EST Thu, 13 Mar 2014, 09:23:17 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 171 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Tue, 04 Feb 2014, 13:41:39 EST by Benjamin Isakhan

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