ABSTRACT
To continue working on the logic and history of the current Iraqi Federation and to understand the nature and implications of the political bargaining embedded in the Iraqi political process, this chapter focuses principally on the constitution-making process and its outcome, the constitutional structure in Iraq. The political will that drove the process of drafting the constitution must therefore be examined to enable us to understand the main purpose behind it. Our consideration of this specific subject will provide the answer to the second part of our research question: why Iraq is a federation. Three main elements will be discussed in the chapter: the actors that participated in the constitutional process, their specific aims and the motives behind these aims. In turn, these three elements will be investigated according to three main phases of the constitutional process: the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), the permanent constitution and the first major constitutional amendment.
