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Title: From Constitutional Monarchy to Authoritarian State:


1
From Constitutional Monarchy to Authoritarian
State
  • The Case of Iraq

2
Map of Iraq
3
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.

4
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5
Centralizing State vs Established social elites
Iraq as a British-allied constitutional monarchy,
1921-1936
Iraqi Politics, Phase 1
  •  

6
Faisal I, 1st king of Iraq
Photos from Iraqipages.com
7
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

8
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

9
Faisals goals.
  • Survival
  • Gradual eradication of British influence in Iraq
  • Creation of a national state
  • Creation of national army
  • Conscription
  • Mass education

10
And challengers
  • British (wanted to maintain power)
  • Kurds (opposed Arab nationalism)
  • Shiite Arabs (opposed educational reforms
    exclusion from government)
  • Tribal leaders (opposed efforts to redistribute
    land and erode their power base)
  • The masses (opposed conscription, etc.)
  • In 1930s, at least 80 percent of Iraqs
    population was rural

11
Effects of British colonialism on Iraqi political
structures?
  • Perpetuation of Sunni Arab political dominance
  • Re-empowerment of the tribes in rural areas
  • Reinforced major schisms in Iraqi society

12
Major players in Iraqi Politics,1921-1936
13
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

14
Iraqi Politics, Phase II
  • The rise of the military the creation of the
    Iraqi Republic (1936-1968)

15
Iraqi Politics, Phase II
  • Divisions within the state
  • The fading monarchy
  • Revolving Prime Ministry
  • The Rise of the Army
  • Seven military coups 1936-1941
  • Expansion of political elites
  • The Iraqi Communist Party (1935)
  • Only Iraqi political organization with real
    grassroots organization
  • The Baath (Resurrection) Party (1952)
  • Unity, Freedom, Socialism
  • Arab nationalist, secular, Arab socialist,
    anti-imperialist, populist, revolutionary (not
    reformist)

Militarism Political Violence
British occupy Iraq 1941 Increasing authoritari
anism
Pan-Arabism vs the monarchy
16
1958 Revolution
  • Violent overthrow of the monarchy
  • Creation of the Republic of Iraq
  • Ceremonial president
  • Qasim as PM, commander in chief, minister of
    defense
  • Reform Dictatorship under President Abd
    al-Karim Qasim
  • Purging of western advisors, efforts to solve
    Kurdish problem, land reform, public welfare
    projects
  • Centralization of authority

Abd al Karim Qasim, President of Iraq, 1958-1963
1963 military coup (Baath Army) Qasim killed
17
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 against 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

18
Major Players in Iraqi Politics, 1936-1968
19
 Phase IIISTATE OVER SOCIETY
  • Iraq as a One Party State The Baath Party and
    the Authoritarian Rule of Saddam Hussein,
    1968-2003

20
Two coups 1963 and 1968
  • 1963 Baath Party Military (Arif)
  • Baath forced out of the new govt after the coup
  • 1968 Baath Party coup
  • Reasons for coups
  • pan-Arabism vs Iraqi nationalism
  • Patronage
  • Those who dominate the state dominate access to
    resources
  • Military seeks to maintain control over political
    process
  • Lack of leadership linked to preoccupation with
    managing the dispersal of the states resources

21
The rise and rule of Saddam Hussein
  • Biography
  • DOB 04/28/37 in Tikrit, 100 m. north of Baghdad
  • Peasant family with influential army relatives
  • most prominent Uncle Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr a
    leader of the 1963 coup and later PM.
  • Tribal society al-Bejat clan, Albu Nasir Tribe
  •  high school in Baghdad joined Baath Party when
    20, aided in failed assassination of Qasim in
    Oct. 1959.  

Saddam Husseins identity card, when he was 10
years old. Photo PBS Frontline website
22
  • After 1963 coup becomes vice chair of the RCC
    (main decisionmaking body for the Baath regime).
    Also in charge of the security services.
  • Becomes president in 1979 when al-Bakr was
    persuaded to step down.

Above left, SH in Cairo after failed 59 coup
above, SH at 17.
23
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24
Points to note about S. Hussein
  • Ruled through fear as well as charm and
    brilliant tactical maneuvering.
  •  Was able to seize 4 main centers of power in
    Iraq- army, party, tribe, security services
  •  His rise highlights the paradox of Iraq
    politics on the one hand, a huge and elaborate
    bureaucracy. On the other, real power centered on
    select few linked to SH through bonds of kinship
    or a history of personal trust.

25
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26
Single-Party Oligarchy
  • Baath consolidation of power, 68-79

27
Regime consolidation within the state
  • a. internal purging, sentencing and public
    executions of any suspected political dissidents.

  • Between 1968-1970, 86 official executions.
  • Saddam Hussein and the Night of Long Knives
    (July 1979).
  • Purging of Rev. Command Council of all possible
    challengers to SH. A quarter of the RCCs
    membership (five out of 20) were tortured and
    murdered along with another 16 Baath leaders.
    Around 500 senior party members killed.
  • Army brought under Baath control 
  • new elevation of particular social groups
  • Tribes, Tikritis

28
Regime consolidation within society
  • a. Penetration of the Baath Party into all parts
    of social and political life- womens groups,
    labor unions, student federations.  
  • b. Substantial economic and political reforms in
    the 1970s
  • 1972 nationalization of the Iraqi Petroleum
    Company (consortium of several foreign-owned
    companies) VERY popular and soon began bringing
    the new regime significant new funds.

29
Resistance
  • Kurds open war 1970-1975, with backing of Iran

  • Shiites- formation of secret, clerically led
    groups
  • antigovernment demonstrations in the late 1970s
    arrest and execution of prominent Shiite leaders

30
Autocracy
  • How Saddam Hussein the Baath maintained power,
    1968-1991

31
1. Oil
  • Nationalization of the Iraq Petroleum Company in
    1972 OPEC oil embargo and hike in prices in
    1973 skyrocketing oil revenues for Baath 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.

32
(How SH maintained power) 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.

33
Saddam Hussein visiting homes, 1980s
34
(How SH maintained power)3. Fear terror
  • Wholesale political repression and persecution of
    all potential dissidents
  • Imprisonment, extrajudicial executions
  • Death sentences including for non-violent
    offenses, in 1998 and 1999 hundreds of prisoners
    summarily executed in a jail cleaning program
  • Public hangings and public executions.
  •  Creation of multiple, alternative sets of
    internal security organizations
  • State internal security, military intelligence,
    party intelligence
  • Massive surveillance and informant system
  •  Forced internal migration to resettle restive
    areas (especially Kurds and Shiite Marsh Arabs)

35
(How SH maintained power)4. Cult of Personality
36
1989 Victory Arch
37
(How SH maintained power)5. War
  • Iran-Iraq War 1980-1989
  • longest conventional war of the 20th century
  • Cost 100-000 200,000 Iraqis dead, 400,000
    wounded, 70,000 prisoners.
  • 25 billion debt to Saudis, 10 billion to
    Kuwait 40 billion to the US, Europe and rest
    of the world.
  • Results
  • solidified sentiments of Iraqi national identity
    among the bulk of the population.
  • Because of concern over Shiite loyalty SH brought
    greater numbers of Shiites into the regime as
    well as repressing any political activity.
  • Islamicization of the regime

38
An excerpt from a US Embassy in Italy cable to
the Dept. of State regarding Envoy Donald
Rumsfelds meeting with Saddam Hussein, Dec. 19,
1983
39
(More results of Iran-Iraq War)
  • armed forces grew from 190,000 to over 1 million
    Republican Guard grows from 1 to 37 brigades.
  • Iraq becomes major regional military power
  • Militarization of society as armed forces became
    most important part of the state.
  • Gulf War (1990-1991)
  • After war, SH considerably weaker, forced to rely
    more on tribes to maintain authority
  • UN sanctions also help him maintain power

40
Major Players in Iraqi politics, 1968-1991/2003
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