Iraq's Authoritarian Democracies: A Conceptual Framework through Tawfiq al-Suwaydi's Political Memoirs

Abstract

Abstract Political memoirs have been typically utilized for their historical reference, neglecting the wide array of conceptualizations of the political sphere and the state that politicians' narratives represent. Critical discourse analysis methodologies, by focusing on perceptions and interpretations of discourse, provide the tools to uncover these conceptualizations of elites and those that represent the state. This is particularly important in states like Iraq, which struggle against hybridity, where the democratic system is actioned through authoritarianist tendencies that define the political sphere. This manipulation of an otherwise democratic structure requires an analysis of the conceptual framework that informs the manipulation. The political memoirs of Tawfiq al-Suwaydi, an Iraqi PM on multiple occasions throughout the Monarchy Era, cover significantly more than identity construction, confirmation of historical narratives, and his defenses. The discursive foundation of the state and the way it is actioned against a democratic system is qualified throughout his writing. In his narration, we will see a significant outpour of fundamentally authoritarian views of rule rooted in efficiency through domination and absolute control. Meanwhile, the democratic system was conceptualized as serving the purpose of appeasing an otherwise inconsolable people. This article highlights the way memoirs of political elites, through the justificatory and analytical language, are gateways to understanding the perceptions of rule upon which their mode of operation, and so the foundation of hybridity, is based. This aims to further illuminate oppressive continuities within the Iraqi political sphere as we have seen a return to a similar form of hybridity post-2003.