The Iraqi state's legitimacy deficit: Input, output and identity‐based legitimacy challenges
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| Author | Jacob Eriksson,Isaac Grief |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13208 |
Global Policy. 2023;14:363–372.
|
363
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/gpol
1 | UNDERSTANDING
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS AS
STATE LEGITIMACY FAILURES
The Iraqi state that emerged following the fall of
Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government in 2003 has
endured almost two decades of extrem e political con-
testation. Following an initial post- invasion insurgency
against foreign occupying forces, Iraq has suffered t wo
periods of civil war (2006– 2008; 2013– 2017), and re-
peated anti- government protests across different par ts
of the country from multiple segment s of society. All
these processes of contention, whether viol ent or non-
violent, have questioned the legitimacy of the Iraqi state.
This paper analyses the nature of this legitimacy defi-
cit using a theoretical framework centred around in put,
output, and identity- based legitimacy, and the grounds
upon which alternative claims to legitimacy are made.
Moreover, it considers the role of identity in shaping
these alternative claims and the shifting sal ience of dif-
ferent identity markers in processes of contestati on.
Within the last 10 years, the Iraqi state has arguably
faced two prominent challenges to its leg itimacy which
have articulated alternative political orders: the Islamic
State of Iraq and al- Sham (ISIS), commonly referred to
as Da'esh, and the Tishreen protest movement begun
in October 2019. Existing research has tended to look
at each phenomenon in isolation, for obvious reasons:
they represent and embody radically dif ferent ideol-
ogies, values, methods, and goals. ISIS is a radical,
violent, exclusivist Sunni jihadist movement which
murdered thousands of Iraqis and brought t yranny and
devastation upon the areas it controlled. The Tishree n
movement is a moderate, non- violent, inclusive, anti-
sectarian nationalist movement which seeks political
reform to improve the quality of Iraqi democracy and
the capacity of the state in the interests of all citizens.
Given these differences, the analysis is not loo king to
make a direct comparison between the t wo. Rather, it
seeks to understand both as responses to leg itimacy
failures, highlighting the failures of input and output
legitimacy that have generated these challenges to
SPECIAL SECTION
The Iraqi state's legitimacy decit: Input, output and
identity- based legitimacy challenges
JacobEriksson1 | IsaacGrief2
Received: 25 May 20 22
|
Revised: 17 March 2023
|
Accepted: 20 Mar ch 2023
DO I: 10 .1111/17 58- 589 9.13 208
This is an open ac cess article under t he terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2023 The Authors . Global Policy published by Durham Universi ty and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
1Department of Pol itics, University of York,
York, UK
2University of York, York, UK
Correspondence
Jacob Eriksso n, Department of Politi cs,
University of York, De rwent College, York
YO10 5DD, U K.
Email: jacob.eriksson@york.ac.uk
Abstract
This article analyses the nature of the legit imacy deficits of the post- 2003 Iraqi
state and the grounds upon which alternative politi cal orders have been pro-
posed. The theoretical framework groups pos sible changes into three types:
redistribution, regime change and se cession. Empirically, the article illustrates
these dynamics through two co ntemporary challenges to the Iraqi state: the
Islamic State of Iraq and al- Sham (ISIS), and the Tishreen protest movement.
The intention is not to compare and contrast the t wo, as they are widely divergent
types of alternative orders, but rather to reflect on the nature of their gr ievances
against the Iraqi state, and the role of identity in shaping t heir alternative visions.
The article argues that identit y is key to understanding both the perceived legiti-
macy failures of the state and the political alternatives propose d, but also efforts
by the political elite to delegitimise these c hallenges to the state. Finally, the Iraqi
case demonstrates that the role of identit y in legitimation is fluid and contingent
rather than static and deterministic, with the salie nce of different identities shift-
ing over time and being affected by other forms of legitimacy.
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