Conflict and Co-operation within Lebanon's Business Community: Relations between Merchant's and Industrialists' Associations

Abstract

International Relations scholars, and writers from a variety of disciplines, have been devoting increased attention to the subject of globalization. One feature of globalization has been the growth in the role of private capital in Third World economies as a result of privatization policies and the universal relaxation, or in some cases complete dismantling, of barriers to private sector activities. The effects of globalization have not been restricted to the economic sphere; for globalization has also contributed to the increase in the political power of the business class vis-ai-vis the state. As John Lucas notes: 'Globalization has indirectly encouraged a more activist business class by altering the bargaining relationship between the government and the private sector'.' Lucas further observes that 'in each [Third World] region there has been a movement toward a more assertive business class'.2 In the Middle East, policies of economic and political liberalization pursued since the early 1980s - and increased integration into the global economy have led to redefining the relationship between the public and private sectors to the advantage of the latter.3 As a result, academic interest in the role of the private sector in the development process in the Middle East has been on the ascent, without this translating into a corresponding increase in the so far scant attention being paid to the activities of voluntary business associations. Middle East scholars, including political economists, have (with very few and partial exceptions) chosen almost completely to ignore the activities of business associations in their analyses of state-society relations in the Middle East.4 Robert Bianchi's and Dennis Sullivan's works on Egypt represent very partial exceptions to this trend, since they both deal, albeit in a very limited way, with Egyptian business associations.5 Both works, however, suffer from major limitations in their treatment of the subject. Bianchi sheds light on the Egyptian Businessmen