“The circle of blame that characterized Maliki’s terms has been repeated: The prime minister blames parties for focusing on their narrow interests and thereby placing hurdles in his way; the parties, in turn, criticize him for attempting to pursue a unilateral and exclusivist policy -- or, alternatively, for being uncertain about what he wants. In the words of a senior Shia politician, “Abadi does not know exactly what he wants...in the morning we agree with him on something, just to hear that he changed his mind in the evening.’ Complicating things further for Abadi is that the organizing doctrine behind the Iraqi polity today is one based on communal representation: Politicians are largely seen as representatives of their communities rather than as constituting a broader national base. They are expected to remain loyal to their sub-national constituencies, which extends to adopting uncompromising and unrealistic positions with respect to relations with other communities. The prime minister is constrained both by the need to secure the support of his own community and by the inflexibility shown by leaders of other communities.”
“From Maliki to Abadi: The Challenge of Being Iraq’s Prime Minister” (Harith Hasan Al-Qarawi, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University)
“The circle of blame that characterized Maliki’s terms has been repeated: The prime minister blames parties for focusing on their narrow interests and thereby placing hurdles in his way; the parties, in turn, criticize him for attempting to pursue a unilateral and exclusivist policy -- or, alternatively, for being uncertain about what he wants. In the words of a senior Shia politician, “Abadi does not know exactly what he wants...in the morning we agree with him on something, just to hear that he changed his mind in the evening.’ Complicating things further for Abadi is that the organizing doctrine behind the Iraqi polity today is one based on communal representation: Politicians are largely seen as representatives of their communities rather than as constituting a broader national base. They are expected to remain loyal to their sub-national constituencies, which extends to adopting uncompromising and unrealistic positions with respect to relations with other communities. The prime minister is constrained both by the need to secure the support of his own community and by the inflexibility shown by leaders of other communities.”
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