A Responsible End?

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In 2005, under the auspices of the U.S. occupation, Iraq adopted a constitution that defined the first parliamentary cycle as a "transitional" period. Between 2005 and 2010 the political system would become transformed from one dominated by power-sharing among ethno-sectarian communities toward a more robustly national, issue-based form of democracy with a strong prime minister.As the U.S. sharply reduced its troop presence in Iraq in 2010, it became clear that this democratic transition had not happened. The lengthy process of government formation after the March 2010 election remained influenced by the same ethno-sectarian bargaining that had characterized Iraqi politics five years earlier. The goal of having a strong prime minister with a national orientation was still distant. In fact, most Iraqi politicians seemed to cling to the instruments of ethno-sectarian quotas and regional patronage as a way of bolstering their own influence.This book looks in detail at political developments in Iraq, 2005-2010, to explain what went wrong at the level of Iraq's parliamentary politics between 2005 and 2010. It argues that most players on the Iraqi scene never tried to move towards a more progressive form of politics. Only one leading Iraqi politician, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, even tried to pursue the constitutional vision of a majoritarian democracy-and he failed. But Iraq's politicians are not the only ones at fault. Another key theme in A Responsible End? is the strong role played by the U.S. government and the United Nations in enshrining a retrograde, ethno-sectarian politics in Iraq during a period that was supposed to be about political progress.About the AuthorReidar Visser is a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He has a background in history and comparative politics and holds a doctorate in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Oxford. He has published extensively on the history of southern Iraq and issues of decentralization and federalism relating to Iraq. His two previous books were Basra, the Failed Gulf State: Separatism and Nationalism in Southern Iraq (2005) and (co-edited with Gareth Stansfield) An Iraq of Its Regions: Cornerstones of a Federal Democracy? (2007).Many of Visser's writings are available from his Iraq website, www.historiae.org. He blogs regularly about Iraq at "Iraq and Gulf Analysis".Veteran Washington-based military analyst Tom Ricks has written, "Reidar Visser continues to produce some of the most insightful analyses of Iraqi politics. I first came across him three or so years ago when a member of Petraeus's staff said, "Don't ask me! If you want to understand Basra, read Reidar Visser.