The failure of peacebuilding in Iraq: the role of consociationalism and political settlements

This article argues that an informal consociational elite bargain was placed at the centre of post-invasion attempts at transition and peacebuilding in Iraq. It is this informal consociationalism that undermined the coherence of the state and delegitimized the political system. The article critically examines the consociational and political settlement literature. It concludes that Pierre Bourdieu's approach to competition in the political field can be used to create an analytical framework that identifies the weaknesses in both tranches of literature and explain how the application of a consociational political settlement destabilized Iraq.