Administrative and Ethnic Federalism: A Comparative Study of the Federal Systems of Iraq and Germany

Federalism is a special way of organizing the state, which distributes and fragments political power within a country. In Germany, we have seen administrative federalism, which has three distinct characteristics: first, that legislation is done at the federal level and implementation at the state level; second that this form of federalism is cooperative; third that the states participate in the federal legislative process as well as the administration of the federal government. Conversely, in Iraq the dominant discourse of dictatorship and lack of political, economic, social and cultural background have prevented the establishment of a stable federal system. The experience of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein shows that what is called federalism is a continuation of conflict in the three ethnic and religious sections of Iraqi society. The present study aims to examine administrative and ethnic federalism in Iraq and Germany with a comparative view and has concluded that the failure of federalism in Iraq and its success in Germany is directly related to the level of economic development, and the political culture of these two countries. The study’s findings indicate that federalism is of no value per se. It is merely a tool that might have different effects from one country to another.