Our definition of the Iraqi state is vague. Is it based on a ruling sect or a ruling party? Is it a national or religious institution, or is it a state for all its citizens, as it is supposed to be? It's not as easy to answer this as one may expect. Iraq has never known the concept of citizenship for it to use it as a cognitive framework to define the state in the first place.

Iraqi citizens are seen by many political and partisan entities as “merchandise.” They are mere votes, ready to be sold in exchange for electoral money and cheap mattresses and heaters distributed prior to the elections. The price can even be a sectarian slogan, or it can involve a barter over the margin of security and freedom. It can be a photo of a candidate trying to open sewers in the streets by himself or offering food to participants in a religious event.

Iraqi parties come up with any number of offerings in their attempts to find themselves a place in an electoral market that undermines the prestige of the state and the dignity of the citizen.

When elections are perceived as a project to take over the state, rifts emerge within the government. The latter then becomes a party struggling not to take over the state but rather to seize the wealth of the people. It becomes a group of people that perceives the seat of power as a golden chance to plunder.