The Discourses of Power and Resistance in the Twentieth Century Iraq

Generally speaking, the political-social scene of the twentieth Iraq witnessed the emergence of five major discourses of power and resistance. They were, once, opposing the formal power discourse, reproducing the discourse of “resistance” in the role of a dissenter. Oncethey seized the power, however, they would struggle other discourses. These five discourses were as follows: the Islamic-Shiites, the communist left wing, the Kurds, the nationalists, and the Ba’th party.In the present article, we will use the discourse theories of Laclau, Mouffe and Foucault to investigate the central points, articulations, elements and the spheres of these discourses in the twentieth Iraq up to the fall of Saddam’s regime.