Networks and Communal Autonomy as Practice: Health, Education, and Social Welfare in Lebanon

Abstract

Building on ideas of networked governance and non-territorial autonomy, this article uses aspects of Lebanese public policy to show that significant functional communal autonomy can be achieved in the absence of coherent institutions designed to support it. In this way, the article argues that norms, notions of legitimacy, and behavioral practices are as important as institutional design in understanding communal autonomy. An overview of the Lebanese education, health, and welfare systems provides an understanding of how communal governance operates and interacts with the state across several policy areas. These policy areas are also used to explore issues of individual autonomy and state strength.