ABSTRACT
'Democratic centralism' as a political concept, was first formulated in the revolutionary movement in Russia. At that point it constituted simply a call both for organisational cohesion and for the adoption of democratic procedures in the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party' as the Bolsheviks had experienced them during their exile in Western Europe. This chapter argues that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is better characterized by 'dynastic republicanism' due to the dominance of the Barzani family and the principle of hereditary succession. The 'combination of socialism with Kurdish nationalism' that Maoism offered 'proved to be highly attractive' among Iraqi Kurdish activist youth, in particular 'when faced with the increasing autocracy of Barzani and the infighting within the KDP Political Bureau'. The era of Mulla Mustafa Barzani's dominance and the pre-eminence of local special interests over the reformist wing of the KDP had come to a drastic end.
