No abstract

This article discusses the application of the resource mobilisation theory (RMT) to clarify the activities of certain key socio-political movements in Egypt. It contends that the political movements in Egypt have utilised social networking sites (SNSs) as a tool for mobilising people and co-ordinating anti-regime activities. It deals with certain political groups prior to and throughout the revolution in Egypt, which played significant roles in recent political changes taking place in the country. This work confirmed that SNSs have become a crucial resource for political groups to bringing about collective and co-ordinated actions. Thus, the article elucidates the importance of RMT in the context of socio-political movements in Egypt and their subsequent influence by looking at the utilisation of social media throughout political uprisings in the country. As per the RMT, the SNSs could be used as a resource for promoting and succeeding anti-government political groups, which subsequently ended the regime.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has a multi-party system which has been held up as a model for democratic pluralism in the whole region. The nature of Kurdistan’s political parties is strongly related to the position of Kurds in Iraq. From the mid-twentieth century, the dominant Kurdish political party in Iraq was the Kurdistan Democratic Party; in a later partisan split the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was born. Moreover, in the last three decades other political parties have come into being, which have all influenced the characteristics of Iraqi Kurdistan’s political system. This paper’s main argument is that Iraqi Kurdistan shares many of the characteristics of its main political parties, including reliance on charismatic leadership, a focus on nationalism, and the lack of transparency. This paper analyzes the primary characteristics of the Kurdish political parties and their influence on the institutional functions of the political system in the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan region of Iraq has a substantial number of the customary signs of political system, including the various main branches of the state institutions such as executive, courts, and assembly. Since 1991, the Region has established as certain political system that adheres to a commonly acknowledged type of system of government. Some contend that the political system in the region is a presidential system, however with parliament having had the ability to vote the President in or out for quite a while. Political division, explicitly between the political parties, has ended up being a veritable obstruction to the political advancement and strength of the Region and to concocting a bound together type of political system. The region has suffered from lack of constitution; this has caused political conflicts over the law of the presidency of the region and the ways of electing the President. Therefore, when Barzani's presidency term ended in August 2015, the political parties except the KDP attempted to amend the presidential law and make another law to elect the president inside the parliament until writing the constitution for the Region in which the political parties can agree on the form of the political system and the way of electing the President. This article contends that there is a connection between the nature and structure of the political parties and the political systems that have been proposed as a ruling model for the region. The article also concludes by identifying potential systems of government available to the KRI and the potential consequences of each.

Ethnic and religious minorities have played a significant role in the long history of Kurdistan. At an official level, their political position was significantly strengthened with the advent of autonomy for the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq in 1992. Most importantly, a quota system was established that reserved seats for several minority groups in the Kurdistan Parliament, often cited as an example of tolerance for diversity and respect for minority rights. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical research examining how ethnic and religious quotas affect democratic stability, quality of representation, and opportunities to represent authentic interests within the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The politicians who occupy the reserved seats have come under criticism for merely supporting the policy programs of the dominant Kurdish parties, which deprives ethnic and religious minority groups of authentic representation and exposes the minority parties to allegations that they are politically exploited. This article analyzes the dynamics of minority political participation in Iraqi Kurdistan, how representation has been affected by the dominance of the ruling parties, and factors that guide the behavior of minority politicians while serving in quota-allocated positions. It also examines the effects of reserving seats through the quota system on the political behavior of minority groups. To these ends, this article focuses on parliamentary quotas and their impact on democratic stability, decision-making, and the empowerment of minority groups in the Kurdistan Region.