Structuring Exclusion

Abstract

What role do institutions play in structuring ethnic dominance and state capture in divided societies? How do historical legacies of exclusion and repression influence communal mobilization and elite institutional preferences? Structuring Exclusion: Institutions, Grievances, and Ethnic State Capture in Iraq, proposes a historical institutionalist framework to explain how ethnic elites rely on state institutions to entrench group dominance and influence power-sharing outcomes in divided, postcolonial societies. Through a systematic analysis of elite institutional dominance strategies across critical state-building junctures, this book posits that ethnic grievances and group mobilization are informed by past collective experiences with exclusion and repression as causal mechanisms that structure communal conflict over time. Using Iraq as a case study, Mako develops a novel theory of ethnic state capture that links elite institutional choices to strategies of political control. The book advances a processual argument to illustrate how historical legacies shape elite bargaining strategies and institutional preferences during the initial phases of post-conflict state-building in deeply divided societies. Drawing on extensive archival research, elite memoirs and interviews, and a systematic examination of legal and institutional changes across various regimes, the book shows how elites construct exclusionary institutions to maintain dominance. By situating Iraq within comparative works on postcolonial state-building in divided societies, the book advances a processual argument about how historical legacies inform elite bargaining and institutional design in post-conflict settings.