Bondage of corruption in Iraq graduating from the Index of Economic Freedom

February 25, 2017

Economic freedom contribute to economic growth, including availability of enhancing competition among actors, leading to increased innovation, efficiency, productivity, and increase investments.

And it operates the rule of law on the protection of property rights, contractual rights, which provides protection of economic freedom and economic growth.

It defines economic freedom as the freedom to produce goods and services and consumption, and traded without the use of force, fraud and theft.

And reinforce institutions, the rule of law, respect for private property rights and freedom of contract, and is intended by law that the state ruled by law and governed by him, in the light of social and economic common values ​​and wide, ethical standards are governed by the dynamic movement of society ", a" system of behaviors and psychological processes that occur within a social group ", as well as the universality of the law and equal status and opportunities without interfering in the physical aspect, because it would limit the economic freedom itself.

The property rights, the right to control the property and benefit from, the right of conversion rights by means of voluntary check for people autonomy according to their standards and goals, without resorting to force, fraud or theft.

The freedom of contract lies in the freedom of the people in their contracts in accordance with legal rules fit in with their own circumstances, in the framework of the Constitution and the freedom available to contractors litigation.

The index of the definition of economic freedom inclusive of basic conditions of her, and reflects the degree which then has the absolute right to own property, and the transfer of labor, capital and goods, is not being necessary to protect the citizens of the border, and ensure the sustainability of freedom itself », contains the cursor on six levels.



In the 2017 Index of Economic Freedom statistics showed, a report for the Institute, "the Heritage Foundation," the American, out of Iraq and four, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen Arab states also Liechtenstein and included, from the international classification, with elevated UAE, which has maintained its first Arab to be the eighth world-state in the sequence.

The published statistics on the Virtual Institute which was established by the Wall Street Journal that the Emirates Heritage Foundation site ranked first among Arab countries, and the eighth in the world, if it went up 17 ranking at one time within the index, while Qatar came in second among Arab countries and 29th worldwide.

Bahrain ranked third among Arab countries, and 44 globally, then Jordan ranked fourth Arab world and 53 worldwide, and Kuwait in the fifth Arab and 61 globally ranked sixth globally and 64 Arab and Saudi Arabia, according to the statistics.

And it won the Sultanate of Oman Arab seventh position globally and 82, followed by Morocco ranked 86 globally, then Tunisia 123 worldwide, 137, Lebanon, Egypt, and was ranked 144 globally, with assumed Sudan ranked 164 and 172 of Algeria internationally.

According to the American Institute the same statistics, Hong Kong ranked first globally in the Index of Economic Freedom for the current year, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia, respectively, what the United Kingdom ranked 12, Luxembourg 14, United States 17, Germany 26.

It consists index published by the Heritage Fawndah Institute (based in Washington) 4 Head of Standards and sub-:

• The first measure: the rule of law, and standards: respect for private property rights, freedom from corruption.

• The second measure: Financial Freedom, and consists of: financial freedom of a country, the size of government spending.

• The third measure: organizational efficiency, and is divided into: the freedom of doing business, and freedom of action, and monetary freedom.

• Fourth measure: includes the opening up of markets, and is divided into: free trade, and investment freedom, and freedom of financing activity.

Comprising the index of economic freedom ten items, namely: economic freedom, and business freedom, trade freedom, financial freedom, freedom from government intervention, monetary freedom, freedom of investment, freedom of banking, intellectual freedom, and freedom from corruption, freedom of employment.

Some economists believe that the components of the index is not sufficient to mark the proper performance of an economy, and that the approach of the highest degrees of freedom (100%) does not necessarily mean that the policies and economic environment of a country, is the most convenient and stimulating economic freedom, and indicated some standard applied studies that lack A strong correlation between the index and the actual performance of the national economy, as it topped this year's ten following economic nations freedom in the world: Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Switzerland and Britain. While China registered a record low while the economy experiencing strong and rapid growth.

And it proved the existence of the human experience and the close relationship between political and economic freedom, as demonstrated by the successful economic performance and ensure the growth of a society and sustainable development, and to achieve justice and social welfare.

She emphasized that the correct structural imbalances depends on the creative ability of the leaders of the operational and planning in finding the appropriate formulas in the mobilization of political, economic, social and human development elements and activated in each country.

Human experiments also confirmed that the representativeness and efficiency of the index of economic freedom and its components depends on the accuracy of the information and formulas addressed, and the extent of their representation of the phenomenon, which is intended to measure, and to know the degree of association and their impact on other variables associated with it, economic freedom is a product of human and physical interaction of two complex serving achieved availability of preconditions operations , most notably the elimination of hunger, poverty, disease and unemployment.

And associated economic freedom following freedoms:

- Freedom from government intervention: the freedom from government intervention, which is reflected in the size of the government's share, the size of public spending, and support cash and in kind.

- The freedom to enjoy to guarantee private property rights: no economic freedom infrastructure and legal rights of private property, and to ensure that those rights and we mean essentially guarantee that confiscate private parties, as some aspects of this kind of freedom is also about security of confiscate the state, because the more volume contraction the government's share, the more freedom from government interference.

- Free access to the real criticism: that related to the entry into force of individuals, companies and economic bodies to real cash. And measured this kind of freedom indicators of monetary independence in the country.

- The freedom of international exchange: no freedom of international exchanges, with economic actors outside the country, and maintains this kind of economic freedom and the size of tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers to trade.

- Freedom of transactions: It is that kind relating to freedom of private transactions in the three markets of government rules, namely: market financial capital, and the labor market, and market products, any general rules for doing business, The Economic Freedom of the financial capital market that freedom than in the brokerage operations.

The difference between economic freedom and the rule of law Economic freedom in the economic growth impact in two ways: direct route, is to create incentives to increase productivity, by increasing the efficiency of dealing with certain technologies, or technological advances, and through indirectly, is to increase investment.

The lack of comprehensive protection of the rights of private property and contractual rights of a real constraint on economic freedom, which is conducive to investment and impede trade or Tthbythma.

As such, the rule of law, protection of private property rights, contractual rights, representing a prerequisite for economic growth and high productivity, which led by private investment. This condition is complemented by an appropriate initial savings of public goods and services, in terms of quality and quantity, and effectively provided.


Iraq and economic freedom

Get out economic freedoms index Iraq Ranked for 2017; for many reasons including: corruption, which constitutes corruption spyware issues governments infect counselor, stunted growth and prosperity and progress movement in government and society, and we mean political corruption in the first place, and then economic corruption, lawlessness, or disability in the mechanics work, and increased the types of corruption in Iraq, particularly the institutions after 2003 became binding sectarian balance, which caused paralysis for all the mechanics of economic proper handling.

The wastage of national wealth greatest kinds of corruption, and in the light of this, we see the negative repercussions that have affected and directly on development and economic life of the country all tracks.

We conclude from the foregoing that Iraq, which suffers political instability, can not plan for the development of the economy, regardless of its accuracy, transparency and objectivity will be judged on both his economic plans failed.


Why Iraq does not take its real role:

And briefly had a proliferation of urban underdevelopment in Iraq, and he suffered from smashing infrastructure, social, political, intellectual, and the structure of the Iraqi society as a whole, a prominent role in the lack of broad solutions to the problems being experienced by the country, which accumulate with time, in the absence of real seriousness required, politicians and leaders of change in the treatment, as well as many of them had no knowledge of solutions and scientific methodology correct to address the political and socio-economic problems and even foreign ones, and there is no intention for sure in the use of global experience, the fact that it is a challenge for personal experiences, and a waste of funds.


One of the reasons of corruption in Iraq:

Some government officials enjoy wide freedom of action potential of Iraq and with little accountability, taking advantage of their positions, and the rigidity of many of the laws that have become incompatible with the new situation of the country to enact laws that serve their interests.

And increased corruption in Iraq, the absence of central authority, all the legislation and the issuance of laws and policies to prevent whereby gains directly to some officials in the government apparatus, and weakness or loss of the role of civil society institutions, leading to the spread of the phenomenon of corruption, in addition to the weakness of the ethics of business career and overlooked senior officials accountable and abuse of power, which reflected negatively on the Iraqi economy and weaken it.

The impact of weak economic growth, the stability of the investment, lured, and provide the appropriate environment for him, and increases the cost of the projects, and weakens the basic public services and infrastructure quality, an increasing number of people with weak souls to the pursuit of profit.

The impact of corruption on the nature of spending as the corrupt official resort to spending on items that are easy to get through it on a large bribes, leading to the weakening of the role of the state and the occurrence of disturbances and instability, questioning effectively the law, trust and honesty and threaten the public interest.

The rule of law and planning the right economic contribute to economic growth; and the creation of creativity and increase productivity through competition in the market, due to technological progress wrought by competition and economic freedom, should economic institutions to maintain a degree of flexibility to enable them to continuing to adapt to the new needs of business and technology and increase investment.

Shatha Khalil

Unit Economic Studies

Links Centre for


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