The Political Economy of Class Formation and Class Structure in the Southern Kurdistan: 1991-2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26750/Vol(10).No(4).Paper35Keywords:
Historical Sociology, Southern Kurdistan, Petit-bourgeoisie, Comprador Bourgeoisie, National Bourgeoisie, World System.Abstract
This article examines the dynamics of class formation from a historical sociology perspective after the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), roughly from 1991 to 2021. It then reviews the KRG period (1991-2021) to trace the process of class formation in the newly-born government. After that, the researchers explore the pattern and nature of class structure and the state in the Southern Kurdistan from 1991 to 2021. This article presents the role of the world economy and the Southern Kurdistan political parties in class formation. For example, the government relied on the selling of natural resources such as crude oil, and a small proportion of people received a tremendous amount of wealth from the government by utilizing political power, and their class position changed to a new one, which is a bourgeois class. As this is a historical sociology study, the following theories will be used: Dependency theory and the world-systems theory are essential in this article because they will evaluate the relationship between classes and compare the Southern Kurdistan with other countries in the capitalist world system. The qualitative methods which have been used in this article include critical analysis of written sources and secondary data, including official statistics of the KRG.
References
Al Hashem, M. A., (2018) Iran to establish goods trading center in Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah. Access [07-01-2023] https://en.mehrnews.com/news/139170/Iran-to-establish-goods-trading-center-in-Iraq-s-Sulaymaniyah
Anaid, A., 2019. The nature of political economy challenges of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan’s Statehood Aspirations: A Political Economy Approach, pp.9-26.
Degli Esposti, N., 2020. Whose Kurdistan? Class politics and Kurdish nationalism in the Middle East, 1918-2018 (Doctoral dissertation, London School of Economics and Political Science).
Degli Esposti, N., 2021. The 2017 independence referendum and the political economy of Kurdish nationalism in Iraq. Third World Quarterly, 42(10), pp.2317-2333.
Frank, A.G., 1967. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America, New York: Monthly Review Press.
Human Rights Watch, 1993. Genocide in Iraq: the Anfal campaign against the Kurds, A Middle East Watch Report, New York.
Ihsan, M., 2016. Nation-Building in Kurdistan: memory, genocide and human rights. London: Routledge.
Leezenberg, M., 2000. Humanitarian Aid in Iraqi Kurdistan. CEMOTI, Cahiers d'Études sur la Méditerranée Orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien, 29(1), pp.31-49.
Leezenberg, M., 2005. “Iraqi Kurdistan: contours of a post-civil war society.” Third World Quarterly, 26(4-5), pp.631-647.
Leezenberg, M., 2006. “Urbanization, Privatization, and Patronage: the political economy of Iraqi Kurdistan,” Legal Issues of Economic Integration, January, pp. 1-26.
Natali, D., 2010. The Kurdish Quasi-State: development and dependency in post-Gulf War Iraq. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Noori, N.N., 2018. “The Failure of Economic Reform in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (1921–2015): the vicious circle of uncivic traditions, resource curse, and centralization”. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 45 (2): 156-171
Park, B., 2012. “Turkey, the US and the KRG: Moving Parts and the Geopolitical Realities”. Insight Turkey, 14(3): 109-125.
Salih, K., 2022. Demographic Engineering, the Forcible Deportation of the Kurds in Iraq, and the Question of Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide. State Crime Journal, 11(2), pp.188-208.
Srhnk, N.T., 2011. Regional Development Strategy for Kurdistan Region 2012-2016. Ministry of Planning KRG, 2(2), pp.92-95.
The Ministry of Planning, 2018. The KRG's Statistical Board at the Ministry of Planning in 2018.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2021. The Ministry of Trade and Industry - General Directorate of Trade - Statistics of General Directorate of Trade in 2021.
The Trade and Industry Ministry, 2018. The General Directorate of Planning and Follow Up of the Trade and Industry Ministry of the KRG, in 2017.
Wallerstein, I., 1974. The Modern World-System. New York: Academic Press.
Woolf, Nicky., 2011. Is Kurdistan the next Dubai? Access [25-01-2023] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/may/05/kurdistan-next-dubai-iraq
World Bank Group, 2016. The Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Reforming the Economy for Shared Prosperity and Protecting the Vulnerable. World Bank.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of University of Raparin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
