Is democratic confederalism being implemented in Rojava?

Abstract

This study focuses on democratic confederalism as a political concept and explores the extent of its in implementation in Rojava or what is now known as the Federal System of Northern Syria. The regions became autonomous in 2012, gradually other areas were liberated by the YPG-led forces and have subsequently become part of the federal system. This has been ongoing up to the time of writing. The study analyses the social contract of Rojava in relation to the ideology of Öcalan. The social contract, the first legal document of its kind was drafted by the peoples’ within the territory. The methodology used is discourse analysis to better understand and interpret the social contract in the light of Öcalan’s ideology. The dissertation will aslo evaluate whether or not there was a shift in ideology from Marxist-Leninist to Democratic Confederalism within the PYD an organisation inspired from the PKK. Is it really the implementation of democratic confederalism that we are looking at or is it a modern form of communist statelet? The main finding of this dissertation is that democratic confederalism is being applied conceptually when the discourse was analysed. However there is still plenty of room for further research to be carried out and understand better the situation since it is ongoing.