The representation crisis illustrated by the high abstention rate in the last legislative elections, the multiplicity of the state and of its parastatal actors after the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party, endemic corruption, agonising public services, repeated wars and crises since the 1980s, the American invasion in 2003, the appearance of the Islamic State organisation, militias integrated into the state apparatus, etc. Many causes explain the gradual weakening process of the Iraqi state and the complexity of its desperate quest for stability.