Comparative Politics Workshop with Lisa Blaydes

DateFebruary 9, 2015

Time12:30pm

Location
4357 Bunche Hall

Contact
Contact Information
Belinda SunnuPhone bsunnu@polisci.ucla.edu

Presenter:Lisa Blaydes, Stanford UniversityTitle: “Compliance and Resistance in Iraq under Saddam Hussein:  Evidence from the Files of the Ba`th Party”Abstract:What explains patterns of compliance with and resistance to autocratic rule?  This paper provides a theoretical framework for understanding how individuals living under dictatorship calibrate their political behaviors.  Using data from documents captured by U.S. forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I use unanticipated political shocks to examine over-time discontinuities in citizen behavior in Iraq under Saddam Hussein during two distinct periods – before and after the First Gulf War and the associated Kurdish and Shi`a anti-regime uprisings.  Prior to 1991 and the establishment of a Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq, severe repression and widespread use of collective punishment created the conditions for Iraqi Kurds to engage in a widespread anti-regime rebellion.  Before 1991, Shi`a Iraqis were able to express limited forms of political discontent; after 1991, however, Shi`a were forced to publicly signal compliance while shifting to more private forms of anti-regime activity.  While Iraqis living in and around Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit almost universally self-identified as Ba`thists and enjoyed privileges as a result of close ties to the regime, Sunnis living in areas distant from Tikrit became increasingly estranged from the regime as international sanctions closed off economic opportunities.

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