Baghdad Lectures and Seminars

Baghdad’s Babylon Hotel

I had two very different presentations today. The first was a lecture and Powerpoint presentation on the process of writing an Iraqi constitution to a private organization of involved Iraqi women. The questions were quite sharp and the desire to involve the country in a discussion of constitutionalism and principles by which all can live together was intense. I’ve found one question that comes up repeatedly when I talk about the judiciary and legal principles concerns restrospective law: if laws cannot be retrospective, how can we punish Saddam Hussein? That led to a discussion of the Nuremburg trials and Lon Fuller’s discussion of how a system can fail to be law. There was also discussion about how to cultivate the art of rhetoric as the necessary art for a free society.

The second was a seminar for economists. It was going to be held at a University, but a combination of security issues in the area and the meeting of the Transitional National Assembly moved it to a Hotel. I made a presentation on institutional economics (which I may post at some point) and found that the degree of understanding of institutional economics was rather mixed. Once again, I was informed by some (not all) that “Iraq is rich.” To the list of oil, water, and people, was added prospects for tourism (which is indeed potentially a great source of income after the security is improved; the three major forms are nature-tourism in the north and the marshes, religious tourism to the shrines, notably in Najaf and Karbala, and antiquities tourism). One professor insisted on the importance of the fact that Iraq has a rich civilization and a rich religious heritage. (Ok.) Some understood what nonsense it is to call Iraq “rich” but it seems that decades of nationalist and socialist propaganda had done its work: Iraqis are poor became of connivance of their enemies, or corruption, or whatever, and all they need is good leaders. I kept insisting on the importance of institutions, and that it’s important to have institutions that can survive bad political leaders. I discussed examples of countries with few natural resources but efficient institutions and countries with lots of natural resources but inefficient institutions. It will take time for people to understand that the issues are much deeper than just getting good leaders, but I am optimistic over the long haul. (The seminar reminded me of meetings I had with Polish economists in the 1980s.) I am hoping to help over the next year to arrange translations of good economics texts, which they desperately need. (Yes, they also need security in the short term, but one has to work on both long term and short term projects at the same time. And I’ve no expertise in finding and killing terrorists.)