Questions about Authoritarianism

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Questions about Authoritarianism

• The Case of Iraq

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Map of Iraq
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Background on IraqFour Points To Remember

• Iraq did not exist as a state prior to 1921.
• Created from 3 Ottoman provinces of Mosul,
  Baghdad, Basra
• Diverse Population
• Religious divisions Sunnis, Shiites (
  Christians)
• Ethno-linguistic divisions Arabs, Kurds
• Population 60 Shiite Arab 15 Sunni Arab 20
  Kurd (mostly Sunnis)
• Urban-Rural divisions
• British invasion and colonial administration
• Nov 1914 British invasion
• Imported monarchy
• 1921 Faisal from Arabia becomes king. Iraq gains
  formal independence in 1932.

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Question 1

• Why did Iraqs constitutional monarchy collapse?

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Faisal I, 1st king of Iraq
Photos from Iraqipages.com
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Iraq as Constitutional Monarchy Formal
Institutions of the State

• King (a new institution)
• Supreme head of state
• Could open dissolve Parliament
• Confirms laws
• Selects PM
• Could grant pardons, issue special ordinances
• Parliament
• Shares legislative power with the king
• Appointed Senate elected chamber of deputies

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How politics really worked actual power

• Monarchy
• Infighting ineffective PM Parliament
• Tribal chiefs
• Re-empowered by Britain
• Britain
• Retained military bases, control of Iraqi foreign
  policy, control over Iraqs finances, advisors
• How did the British retain control?
• Divide and rule country vs town tribe vs king
  tribe vs tribe
• Military force (especially air power)

• If the writ of King Faisal runs effectively
  throughout his kingdom it is entirely due to
  British aeroplanes. If the aeroplanes were
  removed tomorrow, the whole structure would
  invariably fall to pieces.
• - British Secretary of State report on Iraq,
  1925

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Results Catch 22s

• Fledgling sense of Iraqi national identity but
  two Iraqs and no real independence
• King wants independence but relies on British to
  maintain power
• British support undermines state legitimacy but
  necessary for maintaining power
• Centralization of power in Baghdad but British
  support for tribes
• to create mass support, land reform needed, but
  narrow base of state support requires some aid
  from tribal leaders
• Sunni dominance but Shiite majority

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End of the monarchy

• Retreat Fading Monarch and Rising Army
• Threat New political actors and ideologies
• The Iraqi Communist Party (1935)
• The Baath (Resurrection) Party (1952)
• Arab nationalist, secular, Arab socialist,
  anti-imperialist, populist, revolutionary (not
  reformist)
• Egypt and Pan-Arabism
• Coups
• 1958 Iraqi Revolution
• 1963 and 1968 coups

Abd al Karim Qasim, President of Iraq, 1958-1963
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Results

• Violence becomes entrenched part of Iraqi
  political culture
• Army influence over politics prevents civilian
  access, impedes societal coalition building
• Between 1958 and 1968 more than 10 coups and
  attempted coups, two armed rebellions,
  semicontinuous civil war with the Kurds.
• 25-35 of all cabinet posts held by military men
• Three presidents, most PMs, and almost all
  ministers of interior and defense were
  ex-military men
• Newly independent foreign policy
• Some land reforms sporadic inclusion of Shiites
  Kurds into the political process

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Iraq as a single-party oligarchy

• Rule by the Baath Party, 1968-1980s

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Question 2

• How did the Baath Party assert
• and maintain power?

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1. Oil

• Nationalization of the Iraq Petroleum Company in
  1972 OPEC oil embargo and hike in prices in
  1973 skyrocketing oil revenues for Bath use
• 1968 oil revenues 476 million 1980- 26
  billion
• In 1979 Iraqs oil production second only to
  Saudi Arabias in oil-producing states of the
  Persian Gulf.

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2. Social welfare

• reduction of taxes
• Subsidies for basic food
• Free, high quality health care
• No university tuition fees
• Improvements in status of women (In 82 more than
  30 univ. students were female)
• Extensive literacy campaigns

• new highway systems better infrastructure
• Subsidies of ordinary consumption items
• Land ownerships no taxes for many Shiite
  peasants living in the south
• Extensive reforms in the countryside new land
  distributed to farmers
• between 1970 and 1982 264,400 farmers received
  grants of land.

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Saddam Hussein visiting homes, 1980s
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3. Social control, fear terror

• Baath takeover of social organizations
• Repression and persecution of all potential
  dissidents
•  Creation of multiple, alternative sets of
  internal security organizations
• State internal security, military intelligence,
  party intelligence
• Massive surveillance and informant system
• Internal Purges
•  Forced internal migration to resettle restive
  areas (especially Kurds and Shiite Marsh Arabs)

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4. Cult of Personality
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5. War

• Iran-Iraq War 1980-1989
• Gulf War 1990-1991

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Question 3

• What accounts for Iraqs highly authoritarian
  politics? Why have Iraqs political systems been
  so undemocratic for so long?