The role of institutions in (promoting or undermining) social values and their impact on political stability

Human values ​​are one of the most important factors that determine the stability of countries. They have a profound impact on the nature of individual behavior, as this behavior is reflected in the interactions resulting from social systems in different countries. Values, with their various types, systems, and characteristics, differ from one country to another depending on the nature of different societies in the world. What may be considered a basic value in one country is considered a secondary value in another country, and what is considered a fixed value may be considered a variable value in another place. This depends on the civilization and origins of countries, not to mention the characteristics of society and its psychology, as well as its historical, geographical, political, and cultural dimensions. Countries seek to achieve internal and external stability as a strategic goal and an urgent necessity that affects the security and reassurance of the individual and instills in him a spirit of psychological stability and the ability to create and innovate, with what it carries of tendencies and desires for development and advancement according to the renewed needs of man. Social values ​​are directly linked to the stability factor, which is the ability to achieve stability by establishing and strengthening positive values ​​in society and rejecting negative values, especially since this equation requires a joint effort based on two important pillars: society and government. Thus, the stability of a country may depend to a large extent on the pattern of social values ​​prevailing in it, the degree of its awareness, and the sophistication of its culture. In Iraq, it has gone through important historical junctures and stations that had a profound impact in defining and crystallizing a group of political and social values ​​that contributed significantly to destabilizing its internal stability to some extent. Since the eras of successive Ottoman and Persian occupation to the emergence and establishment of the Iraqi state with its monarchy, and then the successive republican eras, up to the period after the American occupation and the political, social and cultural events that followed, it has affected and reflected on the nature of the crystallization of its social values, which in turn was reflected on the nature of the governments that succeeded one another in ruling Iraq in a relatively negative way, in addition to the accumulations and traditions that were generated as a result of the eras of colonialism in all its forms and colors as a result of colonial policies, as well as the eras of tyranny and dictatorship, which established a pattern of culture of submission and prostration, as stated in many sources such as Ali Al-Wardi and Hanna Batatu.