Clientelism and Implementing Social Security Programmes in Post-conflict Iraqi Kurdistan Region
Clientelism and Implementing Social Security Programmes in Post-conflict Iraqi Kurdistan Region investigates social policy in a politically less-developed entity, and examines the mainstream top-down and bottom-up models of policy implementation in light of a detailed study of the Kurdistan Regional Government. In addition, it introduces the innovative “clientelistic model of policy implementation”, a political and preferential tool which utilises a public/nationalistic dichotomy in social welfare provision.
The book argues that politicians in the Kurdistan region deal with social policy programmes according to their political preferences, attaching importance to policies on the basis of the way they feel about those social programmes and interest groups concerned. As such, as it stands, policy implementation is subject to interference by politicians and high government officials under the pretext of supporting and monitoring the way such policy is implemented.
Through an investigation of the most prominent actors in the implementation of social security programmes, this book demonstrates how beneficiaries of these programmes can themselves become focal points in the implementation process. Indeed, within the Kurdistan Regional Government’s social policy context today, the benefits of social security schemes are being distributed based on the socio-political status of recipients, not on their socio-economic conditions and needs.
Muslih Irwani received his PhD in Social Policy and Administration from the University of Nottingham, UK, in 2014. This book is a revised version of his doctorate research. He has published a number of research papers and books in both Kurdish and English, including “Beneficiaries Do Matter: The KRG’s Experience in Implementing Social Security Programme” in Perspectives on Kurdistan's Economy and Society in Transition, Volume II. Having previously worked as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Salahaddin University, Irwani is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Policy in the Department of Politics and Public Policy at American University Duhok Kurdistan.
“Debates about citizenship and social security have traditionally been confined to ‘developed’ welfare states. The literature on other regions has been growing but there has been an urgent need to extent such research to one area in particular. In providing an analysis of recent developments in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Muslih Irwani has therefore filled a much needed gap in that literature. He demonstrates the extent to which relevant concepts and debates can and cannot be applied and offers readers a way to make sense of the main issues involved in policymaking and the politics of the area. This book, therefore cuts through many complexities and helps readers not only to understand the past, but to appreciate what is at stake when it comes to policy and institutional reforms in the future.”
Dr Tony Fitzpatrick
Reader, University of Nottingham, UK
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