Irakiska Kurdistan – Ett annat Irak? : En jämförande studie av Irakiska Kurdistans demokrati

This paper’s purpose is to assess Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s democracy, in two different points in time: one stretching from 1992 to 2003 and another stretching from 2003 to 2017. Robert A. Dahl’s polyarchy model is used as the theoretic framework and an ideal type. The polyarchy model contains seven different criteria (referred to as “institutions” by Dahl) that all need to be met for the “country” to be considered a polyarchy (which is what is most usually referred to as a “democracy”). The material is mostly based on annual reports and other source material from human rights organizations such as Reporters without Borders and Freedom House, but also from independent election observers. The conclusion of this paper is that Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the second time period fulfills the criteria for having “Free and Fair elections”, which it did not in the first time period (1992 – 2003). The criteria “Alternative sources of information” was however fulfilled in the first time period, but not the second. Although the most basic institutions of polyarchy, such as elected officials and universal suffrage, are present in the first time period (1992 – 2003) the actual restrictions on freedom of speech and alternative sources of information, makes Kurdistan Region of Iraq fall short of polyarchy in that time period. Although there is an overall improvement in some of the criterion from the first time period to the second, Kurdistan Region of Iraq does not fulfill all of the necessary criterion to be considered a polyarchy in the second time period either