The Political Regime in Iraq: Between Reform and Legitimacy

In the light of the Arab Spring of 2011, this study concludes that the levels of social awareness in favor of changing Iraq's political and economic reality remain limited and specific to civil society movements; these movements are inherently weak and thus incapable of mobilizing the street with enough momentum to change the status quo. On the other hand, the state uses the need to combat terrorism as an argument to justify repression. Certain social sectors are in fact supportive of this discourse, as are some pillars of social power that support the political process as a tool for fulfilling their own ambitions regarding the Iraqi street. The Western world, including the United States, has proved more concerned with attempts to influence the more ;radical changes taking place in the Arab region than with the happenings in Iraq.