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Colgate professor Stanley Brubaker (second from left) and Louisiana State University professor James Stoner (second from right) stand with Kurdish drivers and militia members who escorted them to Erbil.

Colgate professor Stanley Brubaker, who was in Iraq this summer for a conference about the nation’s constitution, is “cautiously optimistic” that the document hammered out after months of contentious negotiations will be approved in an upcoming referendum.

Brubaker, who teaches political science and directs Colgate’s Washington D.C. Study Group, attended the conference held July 13-16 in Erbil (also referred to as Hawler) in Kurdistan, Iraq.

The conference was co-sponsored by the Hudson Institute, a public policy research organization based in Washington, and the University of Salahaddin, which is in Erbil.

Brubaker and five other scholars of the U.S. Constitution gave eight presentations on various aspects of the American constitutional experience.

“The basic idea was to offer those involved in the process of forming the Iraq constitution insights from the American experience. There are some interesting parallels involving questions of federalism, the relation of religion to the state, and the perennial problems of how to build a stable and decent democracy,” said Brubaker.

“The Iraqis seemed quite interested in learning from our experience -- both our mistakes and our successes,” he added.

About 60 Iraqis attended the conference, including members of parliament, several of whom were on the constitution drafting committee, the mayor of Baghdad, Iraqi judges, members of the Kurdish parliament, and University of Salahaddin faculty members.

Brubaker gave two presentations: one on private property and how it supports liberal
democracy and the other on the separation of powers.

Professor Stanley Brubaker talks with Iraqi politician Mithal Alusi at the conference.

He was invited to speak at the conference by John Agresto, a political scientist who was a senior adviser to L. Paul Bremer, the presidential envoy who led the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from May 2003 until June 2004.

Brubaker hopes information presented at the conference about the United States’ own struggles in crafting a constitution provided the Iraqis with some valuable insights.

“I think all successful constitutions build on a combination of the particulars of a people's culture, time, and place plus universal features of human nature. It is hard to get that combination right, and in our first decade of independence we did not; most of our state constitutions as well as our Articles of Confederation were failures.

“But then in 1787, through deep reflection, difficult compromises, and good luck, we did seem to get it right -- at least in our basic framework. That very difficulty itself of creating a democracy that is decent and stable was probably the most important lesson for those at the conference,” he said.

Sunni Arabs on the drafting committee rejected the constitution that was approved Aug. 28 by the Shiites and Kurds, who dominate parliament and government. Sunni opposition threatens a divisive political fight leading up to the Oct. 15 public referendum.

If two-thirds of the voters in any three of the 18 provinces in Iraq reject the charter, it would be defeated. Brubaker believes that the constitution will be rejected by a two-thirds majority in just two of the four predominantly Sunni provinces, and will be ratified in the rest of the provinces.

Even if the constitution is approved, implementing a liberal democratic form of government in Iraq is expected to be a long and difficult process. Brubaker said what the Kurds have accomplished in the northern part of Iraq could provide valuable lessons.

”The dozen years of experience that the Kurds have had in self-government -- thanks to the U.S. enforced no-fly zone -- have made a world of difference. I was very impressed with the degree to which the Kurds have developed the arts of democracy and civil society,” he said.

“If the rest of the country can be so fortunate as to gain a measure of stability for a decade and if their system of federalism evolves so as to allow a variety of experiments, I think they should be on their way -- though the full realization of liberal democracy will probably be the work of several decades,” Brubaker added.