Political Action of Religious Authority and the state Formation Process in Iraq (After 2003)

After the fall of Saddam in 2003, a new socio-political climate emerged in Iraq in which actors who had previously been barred from acting were able to play a role in the process of forming a new state.While the United States and its allies sought to manage the process of forming a new state based on the "top-down state-building" approach, the Shiite "Marja'", as one of the most important and influential socio-political actors in Iraq, through its active activism On the path of the "bottom-up state-building" approach.Since in the new era, redefining the position of "Marja'" and its active activism has been influenced by contextual pressures and increasing social demands, this article explains the position of "Marja'" as "explaining the contextual pressures of the institution of Marja'. Has examined the "strategic actor" and the Marja' as an "informal institution" in the socio-political arena of Iraq. To answer the research question, library resources were used to collect data and descriptive-analytical method was used to analyze the findings.Using the institutionalist literature and the definition of state as a formal institution and Marja' as an informal institution, the present article seeks to explain how the informal institution influences the formation of the formal institution.