Democracy in Iraq
Listen to "Democracy in Iraq"
Why has democracy failed in Iraq? Here are some potential theories, with their originators in parentheses:
For more information, read:
Huntington's Third Wave
Di Palma's To Craft Democracies
Bellin's Authoritarianism in the Middle East
Colton's Putin and Democratization
Johnson's Political Institutions and Economic Performance
Lipset's Political Man
Marx's Communist Manifesto
Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth
Selbin's Revolution in the Real World
Skocpol's Social Revolutions in the Modern World
Varshney's India Defies the Odds
Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Why has democracy failed in Iraq? Here are some potential theories, with their originators in parentheses:
- Modernization (Rostow, Lipset): Iraq is not wealthy, urban, modern, or secular enough to support democracy. It has not followed the same path to development that Western democracies have set out, and thus, it is not yet ready.
- Cultural (Huntington, Weber): Iraqis are not inherently suitable for democracy, simply because their culture favors an authoritarian style of government.
- Marxist (Moore, Marx): Iraq still has a strong landed elite and a weak bourgeoisie, meaning that it is not ripe for class conflict and thus, it is not ripe for social and political development
- Voluntarist (Di Palma): Iraq lacks the strong leadership needed to usher the country into a democratic phase.
For more information, read:
Huntington's Third Wave
Di Palma's To Craft Democracies
Bellin's Authoritarianism in the Middle East
Colton's Putin and Democratization
Johnson's Political Institutions and Economic Performance
Lipset's Political Man
Marx's Communist Manifesto
Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth
Selbin's Revolution in the Real World
Skocpol's Social Revolutions in the Modern World
Varshney's India Defies the Odds
Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
posted by George Hageman at 10:25 AM
7 Comments:
I would think that the fact that Iraq suffers from all three of the other theories is enough to halt the prospects of democracy, with leadership being a smaller factor than the other three combined.
Great episode George! Thank you for taking time from you busy schedule at school to crank out more excellent podcasts!
I disagree with ssfsx17. I believe that there exists a need for a steward of some kind to keep those that would abuse the system of democracy from undermining it until the people begin to see the value of what they have been granted and respect the power that it has given them. That transition is not a quick one. I believe it takes generations. I also suspect that we have lost that frame of mind in the American populace.
I recommend Przezworski's Democracy and Development and Boix's Capitalist Development and Democracy.
Thanks for the podcast. Although I agree with it, the conclusion that the there is a shortcoming in leadership cannot be deduced by elimination. For this to be valid, you'd need to demonstrate that the theory that you covered are the set of ONLY possible explanations. I really like that you used counter-examples to discuss the competing explanations, however, they would be valid counter-examples if the only difference between the cited examples and Iraq was the factors that you are discussing (keeping only one variable free while the other are constant). I want to stress that I agree with your podcast, although the use in logic in History is a hard sell. Please see this as constructive comments ;)
Finally, the entire premise of the podcast is that democracy has failed in Iraq. I was happy with the premise until I gave it a second thought. The changeover from Saddam Hussein certainly didn't go according to plan, but can we really proclaim that Iraq is a failed democracy? I don't think that we can.
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► Israel is a pain in the äss.
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numpang lewat coy..., it's not easy to democratizing Iraq, keep your struggle...
moslems believe Allah as the supreme law giver not men. thus men playing gods by legislating from their own wimps is against their religion. they say everyman or party comes in and changes or adds any law he likes to his/their advantage. islam is direct threat and ideology against democracy that is why i think democracy is not gonna work in iraq.
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