Oil, Polity, and Civil Society: The Construction of the Hegemonic Apparatus in Iraq

Social scientists believe that rentier economies have a negative impact on the development of a democratic political system. This study fills an existing gap in research through focusing on the interaction between oil rent, the behavior of the political elite, and the civil sphere in Iraq through examining the period between 1950-1958. I concluded that, first; in Iraq, rent generated from oil had provided the resources for the state to oppress the political, social, and cultural opposition in all of their forms. Second, depending on the nature of the economic system, and a variety of internal and external factors, oil could generate different outcomes in rentier states. And finally, the battle for democracy is fought in the civil sphere, and the hegemonic development is the product of a long process of political, economic, and social action.