ABSTRACT
This chapter challenges widespread depictions of Saddam Hussein's regime as a “republic of fear” in which the leader brooked no dissent. Following the fates of 117 petitions written by residents of Baghdad to Saddam and other Iraqi officials, this chapter explores the possibilities and limitations of state-society communication in Ba'thist Iraq and the frequency with which Iraqis from a variety of backgrounds communicated their complaints and requests to the regime. Next, the criteria and decision-making processes used by Iraqi bureaucrats to respond to these requests are analyzed to determine how they changed in response to political and economic factors. This is the first systematic study of modern Iraqi petitions, and it is based on research in the Ba'th Party archives.
