Between Co-Option and Radical Opposition: A Comparative Analysis of Power-Sharing on Gender Equality and LGBTQ rights in Northern Ireland and Lebanon

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of two types of power-sharing: Lebanon's corporate version and Northern Ireland's relatively liberal arrangements. Our aim is to explore whether these power-sharing institutions augment or stymie gender and LGBTQ equality, while also illuminating the complex ways in which LGBTQ movements conceptualize power-sharing. We argue that while Northern Ireland's liberal arrangements, predicated on a minority rights regime, theoretically offer opportunities for gender and LGBTQ mobilization and equality, these rights claims are frustrated as they become embroiled in the wider ethnonational conflict for group rights. In Lebanon's corporate system, alternatively, where gender and LGBTQ rights are absent, feminist and LGBTQ movements identify power-sharing as institutionalizing patriarchy and homophobia and thus engage in a radical campaign of opposition to consociationalism.