By Tahseen Wsu Abdullah
The nation-state, as a phenomenon in its modern sense, dates back to the post-Treaty of Westphalia period in mid-seventeenth-century Europe and as a process coincided with the Industrial Revolution and Renaissance Great on the European continent.
This historical development and transformation had a profound impact on individuals, groups, states and society in such a way that the post-industrial revolution coincided with the emergence of the state in another form that was different from the past.
The rise of the national state was the transition from a sovereign power to a power responsible to the nation. If in previous stages the state as power was outside the framework of law, legitimacy and consent of citizens there was importance in the field of civil society.
In a sense, civil society throughout Europe played a significant role in blurring tribal and sectarian identities and influences, bringing together different ethnic groups within common interests and overcoming sectarian thought. In other words, the most important characteristic of this period was the strengthening of society against political power.
After the creation of Iraq by the British, which coincided with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the state was excluded from all the criteria and conditions associated with the formation of the nation-state. After more than a hundred years, Iraq has not had a nation in the modern sense of the nation-state, because the state created after World War I failed to become a civilized and responsible state to its citizens.
Iraq, over the past hundred years and to this day, all models and forms of power autocracy (individual), oligarchy (power of a group or elite with a view of the narrow interests of a group), and theocracy (group power or religious or sectarian elite). Oppressive) and tribal (a tribal elite) but has not yet become a nation-state.
Throughout history, civil society in Iraq has always been fragile, weak and passive. It has not been able to become a tool to limit political power. On the contrary, it has been seen as an instrument of political power and the ruling elite.
Therefore, going back to the past and the experience of Iraq as a state, the dominant discourse has always been the discourse of discrimination and separation of communities, the division of identities, avoiding the discourse of tolerance and general reconciliation. All these have been the main reasons why the citizen has never been the center of political power, so Iraq as a country without a nation and nations and ethnic groups, remain without a state.