Reading Polanyi in Erbil: understanding socio-political factors in the development of Iraqi Kurdistan

ABSTRACT

The Kurdistan Regional Government emerges out of the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq as a rare positive, providing both political stability and economic growth. However, the outward display masks a more complex domestic settlement where the trappings of the free market coexist with political parties who are significant economic actors. How can this model of development in Iraqi Kurdistan be explained? Turning to the writings of political economist Karl Polanyi, does his thinking on relations between society and economy offer a way to unpack the development? And what does this analysis tell us of prospects for Iraqi Kurdistan?

KEYWORDS:

• Iraqi Kurdistan
• Kurdistan Regional Government
• Polanyi
• Iraq

Acknowledgements

I thank the editors of this volume and the peer reviewers for their constructive advice and feedback throughout the process of completing this article. I thank the staff of the Department of Social and Political Science at Brunel University and the School of Politics, Philosophy, International Relations and Environment at Keele University who listened to earlier versions of this article and provided invaluable feedback. I would like to thank Rebecca Richards, for all her help and assistance in completing this article. Finally, I would like to thank Maurice Glasman for being the original inspiration for this article when we sat and talked about Polanyi over a drink in a bar in Erbil in spring 2013.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Smith

Robert Smith is Lecturer of International Relations at Coventry University. His research examines contemporary state-building projects. He worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Iraq in 2003–4 and lived and worked in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2012–13.