“The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same:” Management of the Ruling Elite under Saddam Hussein

This paper addresses the question of the resilience of authoritarian rule and especially the survival strategies set up by authoritarian regimes to avoid “regime change.” Using Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as a case study, the paper analyzes the composition and management of the Iraqi ruling elite through an in-depth chronological and statistical study of the Iraqi ruling institutions. This is in order to explain the extent to which the patterns of the elite’s circulation/management and its composition mattered for the Iraqi regime’s survival.