Recent protests in Iraq have demanded an end to rampant state corruption, the removal of foreign influences from Iraqi politics and the proper provision of public services. State-Society Relations in Iraq The causes of these demands are partially shaped by the myriad militia groups that began to emerge at the end of the Ba’athist era in 2003. They took on greater prominence in response to the threat of ISIS to Iraq’s Shi’a . The most significant of these groups, operating under the Shi’a dominated umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), utilize patronage links with Baghdad to support illicit economic activity that deprives the majority of Iraqis wealth. Iraq’s state-society relations, therefore, entails that political elites in Baghdad ‘maintain relationships with state-sanctioned armed groups ’ to buttress the power of the central state and resist inclusive government or wide-spread economic prosperity. Extortive economic practices One way […]