Reidar Visser

A Responsible End?: The United States and the Iraqi Transition, 2005-2010 Reidar Visser UK Ed. edition

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 explains 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.