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The Missing Middle Class
Sami Zubaida
International Herald Tribune
(4/21/06)
By giving up his bid to retain his
job, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari of Iraq raised hopes on Thursday
of a way out of the political impasse that had prevented the formation
of a new government. But the premise that this political process
will put Iraq onto a path to stability is doubtful.
A deeper problem compounds the sectarian
differences plaguing Iraqi society: Iraq's middle classes are under
severe attack, and with them the prospect for real democracy. These
middle strata, especially the educated and professional, form the
backbone of any mature society.
The Association of University Lecturers
in Iraq said last month that 182 university professors have been
killed since 2003. In May 2005, the Iraqi Medical Association estimated
that about 10 percent of Baghdad's 32,000 registered doctors - Sunnis,
Shiites and Christians - had left work in the previous year.
The business sector is similarly endangered.
Problems began with the IMF-inspired privatization policies of the
U.S. interim government soon after the invasion. All restrictions
on foreign investment were lifted and multinational corporations
swept in, leading to the collapse of many small businesses, and
with them local economies and employment.
Last month witnessed an acceleration
of violence against civilians in Baghdad that targeted businesses.
Ninety people were killed or kidnapped at their workplaces and money
and assets were stolen.
The elimination of large and vital
sectors of the Iraqi middle classes is not new: It happened twice
in the 20th century.
The first was the emigration of the
Jewish community in 1950-51. Until the late 1940s, the Jews were
a prominent part of life in Baghdad, where the great majority of
an estimated 120,000 Iraqi Jews lived. Jews were government functionaries,
professors, businessmen and professionals in medicine, law, journalism
and music. Formation of the state of Israel and war with the Arab
states made life increasingly hard for the Jews - a great majority
emigrated.
The second wave of middle class expulsions
targeted Shiite merchants, who had replaced the Jews in the markets
in the 1950s. Saddam expelled large numbers of Shiites in the 1970s
and '80s on the grounds that they were Iranian. Many were wealthy
merchants and professionals whose property and businesses were expropriated
for the benefit of the regime and its clients.
Until the 1970s, Iraqi society, despite
violence and repression, had been progressing away from the narrow
confines of religion and tribe with the formation of political parties
and professional associations. The middle classes were the bedrock
of this developing civil society.
However, by the end of the 1970s, the
middle classes had lost their independence. Pressured by Saddam's
regime, professionals found that the only way to survive was to
join the Baath Party apparatus. Lucrative contracts and business
opportunities were distributed depending on proximity and loyalty
to the ruling clique. Now the former Baath Party members are being
punished for doing what was necessary to get by.
As the independent middle classes were
decimated, what remained outside the regime's sphere were the poorer
sectors, dependent for their livelihood and security on the warlords,
tribal sheiks and religious networks that connected them to the
sectarian parties. These leaders and their cronies are now in charge
of government ministries and are monopolizing opportunities for
gain as they oversee the dispersal of large budgets and employment
opportunities. The middle class that emerges from this process will
not be independent.
This cycle of eliminating the independent
middle classes must be broken. Rebuilding the middle strata is crucial
for democracy and must be part of the discussion on rebuilding Iraq.
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Sami Zubaida
is professor emeritus of politics and sociology at Birkbeck College,
London, and a contributing editor of Middle East Report.
He is currently a visiting professor at New York University School
of Law.
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