Ali al-Wardi’s understanding of democracy and its possibilities in Iraq

This article is a study of Ali al-Wardi’s understanding of democracy in general and its feasibility in Iraq. It also attempts to clarify al-Wardi’s position on the problems and obstacles that democracy faces in a society characterized by violence vis-à-vis a state that is weakened due to the dominance of the Bedouin nature of society. The article also aims to study the problems surrounding the application of democracy, according to al-Wardi, in a community which lacks the tradition and understanding of the basic values of a liberal-democratic state. Al-Wardi focused on the question of whether the political changes which occurred in Iraq during the monarchical era (1921–1958) or in the republican era (from 1958) impacted the sociological nature of Iraqi society. Can democracy be applied without democrats? Is it possible to establish a functioning democracy in a society that hates the state? There is no doubt that al-Wardi played an important role in analysing and understanding the reality of Iraqi society and how it had yet to incorporate the values and processes of democracy in its own culture.