News & Events
ARTICLE: Flawed by design: Ethno-sectarian power-sharing and Iraq’s constitutional development
By Zaid Al-Ali, April 15, 2023
CHATHAM HOUSE: Iraq’s current form of governance – based on ethno-sectarian power-sharing – began to take shape in 2003, under inauspicious circumstances. The establishment of a new, post-invasion political system was subordinated to the interests of the US occupation authorities; exploding levels of violence had worsened distrust among members of the political class; and the country’s main political groups all consisted of former exiles who viewed the existing state institutions as hostile targets to be dismantled or absorbed.
These factors, among many, were partly behind the governance decisions that ultimately contributed to Iraq’s politically challenging situation today. Although the 2005 constitution did not explicitly codify ethno-sectarianism, this expediency-based political settlement implicitly informed its every page. The features of Iraq’s system are by now well known: a parliamentary structure in which leading political groups share control over state institutions without any meaningful oversight, and an unwritten agreement that key state positions should be allocated between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish groups. All those involved in designing Iraq’s 2005 constitution had been familiar with the severe problems associated with Lebanon’s pre-existing ethno-sectarian framework. But during Iraq’s constitutional process and in the nearly 20 years that have followed, there has been no serious attempt to understand the limitations of power-sharing, its impact, or ways to mitigate the problems it creates.
My own awareness of how little the national debate has evolved reflects my long-standing personal involvement in assessments of these issues. In 2005, I served as a legal adviser to a United Nations office that was advising on the drafting of the constitution. I have also remained involved in high-level discussions about constitutional reform since then, sometimes in an official capacity as a legal expert and sometimes merely as a concerned citizen.