The constitutional structures of the federalism in the Middle East : the republic of iraq and the United Arab Emirates as a case study : analytical comparative study

Abstract EN

In this study the federal system as a governance system in the Middle East has been discussed through the comparative constitutional basis.

The majority of the Middle East countries have adopted the central regime in power management, but some other countries, such as the Republic of Iraq according to its constitution of 2005 and the United Arab Emirates under its amended constitution of 1971 followed the federal system because of their privacies compared to other countries in the region, and the federal systems in the world.

Furthermore, it also has been compared to the constitutional peculiarities of the Kurdistan region as the only federal region in Iraq with the Emirates members in the United Arab Emirates in terms of construction, distribution of powers, organization of external relations and management of natural resources.

The transition from the system of Centralization of power to the political decentralization power (federalism) in both countries was not easy, most areas of the constitutional, legal, administrative and internal and external relationships between federated entities and the federal government led to a lot of problems and constraints, especially in the areas of commitment to the constitutional distribution of authorities, re-distributing of the interior, national and natural resources revenues.

These problems are still exists in Iraq due to the non-application of constitutional provisions.

In both Republic of Iraq and United Arab Emirates there is federated units, who have constitutional authorities and powers outside the federal authorities to self-governing however the only way for the survival and perpetuation of these countries as united States in the Middle East is the implementation of the Federal Constitution and respect the specificities of the units, especially in Iraq.

Federated governments also have impact for the success of federalism by placing appropriate and internal mechanisms to address the political and legal disputes.

Therefore, only the existence of constitutional and legal provisions is not sufficient for the success of federalism, the existence of federal culture and respect of the Constitution and accepting others with their differences and distinguishing features is very significant to ensure the success of the federal systems, otherwise it will lead to the dissociation of those countries.

After studying and analyzing all comparative constitutional aspects of federalism in both Republic of Iraq and United Arab Emirates, it seems that the federal system is a contemporary and appropriate system of governance in the Middle East, and it is clear that this system is not only suitable for countries who have, multi-nationalities, multi religions, multi-cultures and languages, but it also appropriate for countries who do not have nationality and religious pluralism as the case is with the United Arab Emirates.