The Structure of the Political Opportunity in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – a study of the popular protests during 2003-2013

Abstract

The structure of political opportunity is often defined as those dimensions of the political climate that provide the incentives for the victory of protests about political power and its societal policies, which generates pressure on the political elite and forces it to openness and transition to the democracy. The theory of the structure of political opportunity appeared in the seventies of the last century, and the theory focused on: that the structure of political opportunity depends on certain variables in order to create a societal transformation at the level of politics, culture and economy, such as: the opening of political entrances to reach participation at the legislative and executive level, instability of the arrangement the political, influential alliances about political power and the authority itself with some of the forces that see it revolving in its orbit, the emergence of divisions among the ruling political elite. There were positive influences in the structure of political opportunity in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the period 2003-2013 in the field, such as: time, awareness, welfare, openness, weakness of party affiliation, the rise of social movements and civil society organizations, the revolutionary elite, media and political communication available to all, Supporting national and international equations, change in the political map. However, until now, it faces the political opportunity structure for many internal and external challenges at all levels, and among these challenges are: the party-dominated formation of society, limiting transformations in partisan convergence, flexible repression and in the name of democracy, the monopoly of power, the response of power to the demands of citizens, the absence of the constitution, and the external interventions.