THE IRAQI COMMUNIST PARTY IN POST-2003 IRAQI DYNAMICS: IDEOLOGICAL SHIFTS AND PROCESSES OF CHANGE

Abstract

This thesis studies the Iraqi Communist party in post-2003 Iraqi dynamics. It explores the party's ideological shifts and attempts to track the processes of change it underwent. Using a qualitative, content analysis strategy of inquiry, the thesis examines official party literature exemplified in the documents of its eighth and 11th national congresses. Employing a sociology of power theoretical framework, the thesis argues that the party has been experiencing a process of ideological change influenced by different international and internal critical junctures. Moreover, the thesis attempts to justify the survival and continuous presence of the party in post-2003 Iraq by highlighting the role of "the people" in preserving the structure of the party. The study concludes that the Iraqi Communist Party is in the final stages of an ongoing process of change, in which the party has drifted in all but name away from Marxism-Leninism.