The Political Hybridization of Middle Eastern States: Iraq as a Case Study

Abstract

This article analyzes the future features of Iraqi statehood, drawing on hybrid regime theory and a broad understanding of political system transformation. In this context, we assume that post-ISIS Iraq has a pluralistic security perspective (state versus militia), which has led to a second feature: the challenge to the monopoly of violence by the Popular Mobilization Forces. This, in turn, affects the legitimacy of political authority and the state’s defense policy. In the article, using hybrid regime theory, social identity theory, and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of homology, the authors argue that Iraq is not a failed state, but a country with a highly hybrid political system, where formal democratic institutions coexist with informal networks of sectarian and militarized power. By examining the historical development of Shia militias and their integration into the Iraqi state system since 2014, the article reveals the rise of parallel governance structures and security pluralism. The dual identity of the Popular Mobilization Forces, as a state-backed military force and an autonomous sectarian formation, challenges Max Weber’s ideas of sovereignty and the sociology of the state, blurring the line between legitimacy and coercion. The example of Iraq is illustrative and particularly interesting, as the formation of a new elite took place in conditions of political and sectarian conflict and struggle. Moreover, the emergence of a new elite in the new Iraqi state and Iraqi society occurred simultaneously with regional transformation processes, characterized by global and regional clashes between different centers of power, which, in turn, influenced the hybridization of Iraq’s domestic political processes.