Lebanese Politics Research Articles

Lebanese-Turkish Relations after the 2000s and the Neo-Ottomanist Discourse in Lebanon

Lebanon, had non-visible relationships with Turkey after its independence and the post-civil war period. Although it lost the balance of political stability at times, the political affinity that emerged with the participation of Lebanon in the close relations, which Turkey sought to establish with Arab countries in the 2000s, continued with mutual negotiations at the point of cooperation. After the Lebanon-Israel war in 2006, which caused political and economic destruction in the country, Turkey increased its support for Lebanon. Accordingly, the crises appeared after the Arab Spring in the region led Turkey to follow the sensitive policy over the sectarian groups in the country. However, some reactions arose in Lebanon’s political arena against Turkey’s increasing regional activism, bringing several ideological questions on Turkey’s approach towards Lebanon. Regarding the relationship between Turkey and Lebanon, “Does Turkey desire to establish a new Ottoman administration in the Middle East?” was one of the questions asked. Moreover, a negative environment was created and used occasionally as a trump card against Turkey’s approach toward Lebanon, saying that even the Ottoman Empire did not play an active role in the Lebanon region. This study examines whether there are traces of Neo-Ottomanism and sectarianism in the political roadmap followed by the Turkish Government in its Lebanon policy. It discusses, the diplomatic response of Turkey to the anti-Ottoman rhetoric in Lebanese politics and its effect on bilateral relations. Accordingly, the study analyzes Turkey’s effort to maintain the balance against sectarian discourse that shapes Lebanon’s policy.

Framing the Role of Regional Actors in the Lebanese Sunni Politics: Perspectives from Sunni Groupings and Leaders

The aim of this article is to understand how Lebanese Sunni political actors construct their narratives on the role of Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia in the Lebanese Sunni politics and how those narratives are framed and counter framed. The article adopts Max Weber’s interpretivist or Verstehen research approach which emphasises that reality is a social construct. Using a case study research design with qualitative approach, the data is collected from the field employing interviews (semi-structured) and documents analysis. A purposive sampling technique was operationalised to choose 23 research participants including Sunni grouping leaders or representatives, politicians, Lebanese ministers, and members of Parliament (MPs) from various sides within the Lebanese Sunni political spectrum. The findings suggest that Iran appealed to various Sunnis by amplifying the frames of supporting Palestine, resisting Israel and countering western imperialism. Yet, some Sunnis frame Iran as deconstructing the Sunni politics and creating intra-Sunni friction. Syria’s role was framed by some Sunnis as 'divide-and-rule', claiming that Syria categorised Sunnis based on their association or lack thereof with them. Pro-Syrian Sunnis amplifies Syria’s perceived ‘pan-Arabism’ credential and contribution to ending Lebanese civil war. Saudi Arabia’s role in Lebanon is understood in the context of unifying Sunnis and integrating them into the Lebanese politics. The research recommends the Lebanese Sunnis to think globally and act locally in ways that will reestablish genuine democracy and development, placing the interest of Lebanon as the top priority.

Lübnan Dış Politikası ve 2005 Refik Hariri'nin Öldürülmesine Kadar Lübnan-Suriye İlişkileri

In its political history, Lebanon has been a country where religious and sectarian differences have come to the fore. These differences have had an impact on Lebanese political, economic and socio-cultural life as well as Lebanese foreign policy. This study argues that until the assassination of Rafik Hariri, "Lebanese foreign policy and Syrian-Lebanese relations were influenced by domestic political factors in Lebanon, while regional/global problems in the Middle East directly/indirectly affected Lebanese foreign policy and Lebanese-Syrian relations". In its relations with Syria, Lebanon is a country whose domestic factors are shaped together with foreign political processes, is known as the capital of crises and civil wars and is home to the Syrian-Israeli conflict. In other words, Lebanese domestic and foreign policy cannot be considered independent from Syria and Israel. However, Lebanon is the epitome of the Middle East and has been in the sphere of interest of both local, regional and global actors. In this study, the manifestations of external factors in Lebanon's domestic politics will be discussed by presenting the historical background necessary to understand the current debates, the importance of Lebanon for Syria, the reflection of the changing structure of the Middle East after the Iraq War on Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli relations, the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the consequences of the political division in Lebanon after the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. In the study, this historical process is analyzed from an analytical perspective, and the relations between the actors and their consequences are analyzed from the perspective of Lebanon, Syria and the Middle East.

Neo-Weberian Reading of Violent Non-State Actors: The Case of Hezbollah

Multiple-actor reality and the impact of different units, except the states in stratified structural relations, have become more apparent in recent international relations. Specifically, the rising role of Violent Non-State Actors (VNSA) in regions like the Middle East and North Africa, and their challenges to the sole and central position of states, reinforced this idea. Hence, comprehending the possible actorhood of these groups within the structural relations consisting of internal and external realms necessitates alternative concepts and challenging arguments. The Neo-Weberian approach, inspired by historical sociology, offers a grounded and balanced analysis of actors. This approach puts state-society at the center of attention and, thus, looks at all dimensions (both actor and structure) of social relations as ingrained in the theory of structuration. In this way, it seems to capture the complex interactions between actors and structural dynamics, as well as the dynamic transformation of both ontological realities. Along this line, this study intends to illuminate the intriguing aspects and certain advantages of the structuration approach by scrutinizing Hezbollah’s agency, which is a critical VNSA in the Middle East, and its impact on structural relations, as well as its evolution over time. In other words, as a modest contribution to the structuration literature, the mutual interaction between agent and structure is explored via a unique case. This study argues that Hezbollah emerged as a result of the preexisting structural realities and, during the process, it proved its agency and influential role on these stratified structural dynamics. To substantiate these theoretical arguments, the permissive structural conditions in the region and in Lebanon will be explained, and then Hezbollah’s impact as an actor on these structural realities will be surveyed with a special emphasis on Hezbollah’s role over two regional dynamics: Arab uprisings, particularly the Syrian internal war, and its now hegemonic position in Lebanese politics.

TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM IN THE LEBANESE URBAN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR ENHANCED MASTER PLANS’ GENERATION

With the fact that 88% of the population living in urban areas, Lebanon is a highly urbanized country. However, this high urbanization undergoes the severe lack of the proper urban planning methodologies and approaches resulting in the sprawl along infrastructure paths. The weakness or even the complete absence of the plans escorting the urban growth made every city or town a single urban area confronted by plenty of challenges. Decentralization has been a recurrent theme in Lebanese politics for many years, yet it’s now limited by an administrative scale, and at the municipal level only. This administrative decentralization affects the planning process directly and makes it impossible to create righteous plans. The paper will focus on Master Plans by introducing their current procedure, implementation, actors, and challenges. It will highlight the Lebanese national system’s complications and limitations by following the descriptive methodology, and to present similar worldwide cases where all the difficulties were resolved by a comparative one. Finally introducing a new conceptual paradigm involving the national, regional, and local levels reshaping the Lebanese planning framework to enhance the Master Plan’s creation.

Entropic spatial auto-correlation of voter uncertainty and voter transitions in parliamentary elections

This paper studies a novel spatial auto-correlation model of voter uncertainty across districts. We use the Moran I index to measure the auto-correlation of Shannon, relative Shannon, Tsallis and relative Tsallis entropies of regional electoral outcomes with respect to geographic adjacency, proximity and sectarian adjacency. Using data from the Lebanese parliamentary elections, we find strong geographic and gravitational adjacency correlations. More importantly, there is a notably strong correlation in sectarian adjacency in both 2018 and 2022 elections, with a very high level of confidence. This result asserts the dominance of the sectarian factor in Lebanese politics. We also introduce the method of maximized general entropy estimation that allows us to determine the Markov transition matrix of voters between consecutive elections.

The Challenges of Pluralism in Lebanon and the Culture of Change in the Lebanese Political Thought

This paper aims at presenting the challenges of pluralism in Lebanon and the challenges when it comes to the culture of change in the Lebanese political thought. It also tries to analyze from a historical perspective what was the political change that occurred in the Lebanese feudal system as well as Lebanon’s modern history. Additionally, it also attempts to analyze the nature of the continuity of the Lebanese political model and the emergence of the concept of consociational democracy. The paper employs a qualitative method, classifying the different factors, internal and external, that shows what are the real challenges and obstacles and the current status-quo of the culture of change in the pluralistic Lebanon. The paper develops a framework for change in the pluralistic Lebanon especially during this current time. Its theoretical importance is in adding to the literature on the culture of change in the Lebanese political thought; Lebanon being a pluralistic society, which is a prerequisite for its democracy.

Illnesses of Illusion and Disillusionment: From Euphoria to Aporia

ABSTRACT This essay explores how engaging linguistic patterns and philosophical aporias in writing has helped me cope with the pains of disillusionment of quotidian life in Lebanon. Three Ps cause and aggravate my illness: the Protests, Pandemic, and Pandæmonium. I name my illness 3P and I seek a rhyming therapy in writing—a 3P-Therapy—to combat my illness of illusion and disillusionment. The pattern of confrontation and self-destruction recurring in the arena of Lebanese politics enables me to trace a linguistic expression of such a pattern in the double consonant ‘l’ found in the words illness, illusion, and disillusionment (ll appears as the deceptively similar looking 1–1/one to one). I explain that the ‘ll’ as 1–1 represses an inherent strife between self and self on the personal level, simultaneously as it betrays a 1–1 confrontation between self and other on the political level. The Port Blast becomes this force of disillusionment that suddenly makes the euphoria of being Lebanese transfigure into an aporia in which it is hard to determine whether I am alive or dead, having hopeful fears or fearful hopes, being a citizen of the world or a monstrosity of stoic survival.

Lebanese Sunni Muslim Politicians’ Narratives on the Political and Religious Leadership of the Lebanese Sunnis: Reconstructing Inclusive Political Leadership in Lebanon

In this article, Sunni Muslims politicians’ narratives on the political and religious leadership of the Lebanese Sunnis are examined in an effort to reconstruct inclusive political leadership in Lebanon. The Lebanese Sunnis are primary actors in the Lebanese politics. The significant role played by Sunnis is recognised in the National Pact 1943, which paved the way for Lebanon’s independence from France together with the Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon’s civil war. The signing of the agreements culminated into the establishment of the confessional political system in Lebanon and enabled the Sunnis to constitute an integral part of that system. However, Lebanon is still saddled with internal political problems worsened by the struggle for influence over Lebanon from external actors. The overlapping between domestic and foreign factors is critical in constructing Sunni narratives on their leadership. Sunni framing constructions suggest that the Sunni leadership is galvanising the Sunni community to serve its own interests. The disempowerment of Sunnis is mainly attributed to the failure of their political and religious leadership. This article, therefore, argues for the reconstruction of inclusive leadership in Lebanon. This will enable the Lebanese actors to delegitimise identity politics and promote national cohesion and stability. It also recommends the establishment of independent electoral commissions, prohibition of foreign funding of political groupings, and dismantling of the confessional political system in Lebanon.

The Rise and Fall of Greater Syria: A Political History of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party

In the 1940s and 1950s, it was common among ʿAlawi high school students in Lataqiya to ask one another “shu dinak” (what is your religion, or creed?), by which they meant “are you a member or supporter of the Baʿath of the SSNP [Syrian Social Nationalist Party]?” These were two radical but different parties. The Baʿath was a Pan-Arab nationalist party combining a doctrine of secular Arab nationalism with a belief in social democracy. The SSNP expounded a doctrine of secular Syrian territorial nationalism rejecting Arab Nationalism and a separate existence of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, which were instead to be united in a large Syrian state. Both ideologies were attractive to members of minority communities in Syria and Lebanon who were uncomfortable with the Sunni tinctures of classical Arab Nationalism. The dividing line ran sometimes within families. Thus, Ghassan Jadeed was a prominent officer in the Syrian army, a member of the SSNP, who was assassinated by emissaries of Syria’s military intelligence in Beirut in 1955. His brother, Sallah Jadeed, was a prominent member of the Baʿath Party, who became one of the principal leaders of the Baʿath regime in Syria after the coup of March 8, 1963.The SSNP was one of the most interesting political movements to emerge in the Fertile Crescent during the first half of the twentieth century. It was founded by Antuna Saʿadeh, a Greek Orthodox Lebanese, who returned from Brazil and became active in the political and intellectual circles of Beirut in the 1940s. Saʿadeh was influenced by the right-wing and fascist movements in Europe, as were other politicians and movements in the region (the name Phalange given by Pierre Jumayyel to his party was clearly reflective of the trend). According to Saʿadeh, there was and there had been a national entity called Greater Syria composed of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. This entity had existed for many centuries but was brutally divided by the colonial powers into four “artificial states.” The purpose of the movement was to abolish this artificial division and to establish Greater Syria. Saʿadeh’s specific opposition to the Lebanese state reflected the Greek Orthodox’s opposition to the Maronite-Catholic hegemony in Lebanon. He actively sought to topple the dominant order in Lebanon, staged a failed coup, escaped to Syria, was extradited to Lebanon, and executed in 1949. His disciples continued their activity in Lebanese politics, staging another failed coup in 1961, but the brunt of their activity shifted to Syria, where, in the 1950s, they fought against rising tide of Arab Nationalism and Soviet influence.It was an ironic twist of fate that when the Baʿath finally came to power in Syria, particularly after the establishment of Hafez al-Asad’s regime in 1970, that the SSNP in Syria, a minor party by that time, was tolerated by the regime and came to support it. This was facilitated by personal relationships and by Hafez al-Asad’s quest to establish Syria’s hegemony over Lebanon and the Palestinians. The Baʿath that had been the most distinctive Pan-Arab political movement and played a key role in establishing Syria’s union with Egypt (1958–61), ended up after 1963 as the champion of Syria’s separate existence, and then as a regional power, exercising influence over its weaker neighbors. Members of the SSNP could argue that Hafez al-Asad was in fact implementing Antun Saʿadeh’s legacy.Carl Yonker’s book, based on his doctoral dissertation at Tel Aviv University, describes and analyzes the SSNP’s history and its remarkable journey during several decades. He does it well. The one comment to be made is that the contemporary part of the book dealing with current events should have been extended.

Political Communication through the Prism of Social Media: How are Lebanese Political Parties Using Facebook in Electoral Campaigns?

The integration of social media in political communication has expanded significantly over recent years. This article focuses on how politicians are using Facebook in electoral campaigns. The main objective is to analyse the different functions ascribed to this digital platform in electoral communication. The present research studies the usage of Facebook by political parties in Lebanon during the parliamentary election of 2018 based on quantitative content analysis. All Facebook posts of three major political parties published during the electoral campaign were collected and examined. The results of the study reveal first that most parties were using Facebook in a unidirectional way; that is, only to disseminate information without giving any real value to users’ feedback. A prime example of this was how the Future Movement, a popular political party, made significant use of external links, and effective forms of controlled Facebook tools. This demonstrated how politicians aimed to contain and direct users to their preferred information flow. Second, emerging parties from the opposition tended to publish more negative and attack posts than incumbents. Third, the interactive tools of Facebook were used poorly. Fourth, there was, however, a relative difference with regards to political groups outside the formal institution of power, such as the Political Alliance “Kollouna Watani” who made better use of the interactive function. The main factors that could explain the findings are the historical background and path of the political parties as well as their position in or outside the government, the partisan and costly coverage of traditional media outlets, and the hybridisation of political communication. Keywords: Facebook, political communication, Hybrid media system, electoral campaign, Lebanese media.

Syria and the civil Lebanese war 1975 – 1982

Lebanon faced many internal and external difficulties which led to different shapes of internal conflict. It took the shape of religious sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians as well as Arab-Zionist conflict on one hand, And the palastanian existence in Lebanon on the other hand. These matters contributed in flaming the Lebanese civil war and led to the intrusion of many countries one of which was Syria which played a political and military important role. It tried to control over the Lebanese politics and prevent it from any external projects.This war lasted from 1975 to 1982

A House of Many Mansions: Perceptions of Lebanese Political and Intellectual Elites toward Iran

ABSTRACT Lebanon is believed to be the most religiously diverse country in the Middle East. Lebanese elites play a significant role as identity-makers and parts of regional alliances. The present paper examines Lebanese intellectual and political elites’ perceptions of Iran. To this aim, the author conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with figures from Lebanese political parties with different political orientations and religious denominations. Using integrated threat theory to analyse the data, the author argues that the Lebanese elite’s view towards Iran illustrates various threat perceptions among members of different religious denominations in conjunction with their political affiliations. It will be discussed that Iran and Hezbollah have turned into an in-group for a particular, albeit a significant portion of the Shia community in Lebanon (mostly affiliated with Hezbollah) and an out-group for many in other religious and political denominations. Accordingly, Iran’s growing regional power is perceived as a realistic and symbolic threat by those who consider Iran (a Shi’ite entity and Hezbollah) the out-group.

The Lebanese Political Dynasties: “the fine-tuning”

A small in size, Lebanese Republic is known for it’s a confessional segmentation, a clan orientation and a predominant heredity of the local political elite. A oligarchic nature of a political regime of the country of cedars is due to a traditional clan structure of a lebanese society. For centuries, a leading role in Lebanon was played by the territorial-confessional clans, that wereheaded by the sheikhs–zaims (zuama). This system has migrated to a modern lebanese politics. At the same time, it has the support among both a old one and a new one elite. Therefore, a clear understanding of the involvement of the leaders of the power structures of the Lebanese Republic in a certain political dynasty is necessary for understanding a current state of affairs in the country, as well as to predict the nature of its further political development.
 So, the primary criterion, which was determines the sequence of the coverage of the activity of the political dynasties of the country of cedars is the degree of the influence on a today’s Lebanese realities of one or another of the current “zaims”. Based on this principle, we will talk about a a family-clan context of the first three persons of the state: the Prime Minister, the President (Speaker) of the National Assembly and the President of Lebanese Republic, as well as a few of the other leaders of the influential or at least the appreciable political forces, that are represented in parliament, which was elected in 2018 (except of H. Nasrallah and S. Geagea). In particular, the article contains an analysis of the possibilities of the creating the political dynasties by the current Prime Minister N. Mikati and Speaker of Parliament N. Berri, the prospects for a further existence of the newly founded political dynasties of the families of Aoun and al-Hariri, as well as the reasons for a political survival of the hereditary Lebanese zaim families Jumblatt and Frangieh. The main conclusion of this publication is the statement about a prospect of a total preservation of the principle of the nepotism in a lebanese politics for at least the coming decades.

Lebanon’s Parliament System as a Form of Institutionalized Hybridity

Abstract This article presents the Lebanese parliament as a form of institutionalized hybridity that offers a modicum of popular participation through highly regulated and moderated channels. It argues that the procedural nature of Lebanon’s electoral system is one that is largely, if not entirely, underscored by a closed elite bargaining process and is driven by elite preferences. This dynamic is a by-product of a power-sharing arrangement that ostensibly balances sectarian concerns, but in reality creates a disparity between political elites and the individuals within those sects which the consociational arrangement purports to include. However, this system has also created and reinforced challenges to its rule, particularly from below. With that in mind, this article highlights the evolving interactions between the entrenched, elite dominated, political system and popular protest movement and outlines how recent patterns of popular unrest present more fundamental critiques of the parliament and its central role in Lebanese politics.

Defending Freedom of Expression and Challenging the Press and Media Laws in Lebanon: The Case of the Lebanese Political TV Satire Shows

Lebanon is among the most developed Arab countries concerning freedom of expression, and its press and media are famous for their openness and critical approach toward domestic and Arab affairs. The openness and criticism notwithstanding, there are various restrictions, not always formal ones, on the freedom of expression in Lebanon. While much has been written about Lebanese freedom of expression and media, few researches have concentrated on Lebanese political TV satire. This article aims to examine the limits of freedom of expression in Lebanon, as reflected in the various political TV satire shows. The article examined five satire shows: Basmat Watan, La Youmal, Ma Fi Metlo, Chi.N.N. and Awal ‘Ala Akhir. For each show, the article referred to three controversial issues: the attitude toward politics and politicians; the attitude toward Hezbollah and its weapons; and the attitude toward Lebanese presidents, foreign heads of states and Syria. Focusing on the different Lebanese TV satire shows and these contentious subjects reveals how these shows challenge the press and media laws, break taboos and even, to a certain degree, habituate the Lebanese audience to engage with controversial issues.

Review: The Biggest Prison on Earth: A New Narrative of the History of the Occupied Territories, by Ilan Pappe

Book Review| September 01 2021 Review: The Biggest Prison on Earth: A New Narrative of the History of the Occupied Territories, by Ilan Pappe The Biggest Prison on Earth: A New Narrative of the History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappe, translated into Arabic by Adonis Salem (Beirut: Nawfal/Hachette Antoine, 2020). 368 pp. US$76.67. ISBN 9786144690598. Yesmine Koaik Yesmine Koaik Lebanese Political Researcher. Email: yesminekoaik@hotmail.com Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Contemporary Arab Affairs (2021) 14 (3): 146–153. https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2021.14.3.146 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Yesmine Koaik; Review: The Biggest Prison on Earth: A New Narrative of the History of the Occupied Territories, by Ilan Pappe. Contemporary Arab Affairs 1 September 2021; 14 (3): 146–153. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2021.14.3.146 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentContemporary Arab Affairs Search Ilan Pappe’s The Biggest Prison on Earth exposes Israeli violations in Palestine against its indigenous people. The Israeli historian reveals Israel’s ugly crimes against humanity over the years, using clear-cut evidence that indicts the settler colonial entity. Pappe comprehensively analyzes Zionist objectives in occupied Palestine, and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in different historical epochs. The Israeli historian’s latest work earned the “2017 Book of Palestine Award,” and it was recently translated into Arabic by the Nawfal/Hachette Antoine Lebanese publishing house. This new work par-excellence dealing with the history of the Palestinian occupied territories unmasks Zionist projects and violations of Palestinians’ rights since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began in 1948. Pappe dedicates his book to the children of Palestine who endured killing, injury, and bullying because they live in the biggest prison on earth. The book includes a forward, introduction, and twelve chapters that make up 357 pages,... You do not currently have access to this content.

Chehabism revisited: the consequences of reform in Lebanon

ABSTRACT This article studies the reforms undertaken within the Lebanese state during the term of president Fouad Chehab (1958–1964) and their effects on Lebanese politics and bureaucracy. The article demonstrates that, while there were many positive results that came from these changes, the vision behind them, the methods of their execution, as well as the short time in which they were enforced, made them unsustainable as a long-term solution for Lebanese clientelism and corruption. Inherently, these reforms – though desperately needed – were not in any sense radical, and Chehab’s loyalty to the country and his army, combined with his distaste for politics, meant that the implementation of change came at the cost of long-term planning and the improvement of administrative culture. In addition, the measures that accompanied the army’s involvement in politics clashed with the Lebanese power-sharing system, and did not materialise into real democratic change. Ultimately, the degree to which Chehab’s reforms challenged many of the traditional Lebanese elite, and alienated much of the Lebanese population, resulted in a very tense socio-political situation that would break down only a few years later.

Beginnings, Continuities and Revivals: An Inventory of the New Arab Left and an Ongoing Arab Left Tradition

: This article examines some of the first translations of Gramsci into Arabic by young, New Left figures associated with a short-lived group called “Socialist Lebanon.” Thinking à la Edward Said about the undertaking of translations of ideas from one context to another and one language to another as a potentially productive act of beginning, I argue that these first translations, undertaken as part of a revolutionary praxis of young, militant intellectuals, not only reveal some of the limitations and possibilities in the development of a Gramscian analysis of Lebanese politics. Rather, their efforts were central to the formation of a New Arab Left and the strands of those beginnings not only are detected in the later work of several of these activist-translators, even after they had moved beyond militant politics, but also remain visible in later revolutionary praxis in the region. By foregrounding the way in which each subsequent “Gramsci boom” (in the 1990s and after 2010) exists in relationship to an ongoing revolutionary praxis that reads and translates the Arab Left anew, I also seek to provide evidence of what Michele Filippini refers to in this issue as an “Arab provincialization” of Gramscian thought and what I prefer to highlight as a continuous tradition of Arab Left revolutionary praxis.

Lebanon’s Faulty Governance and Elitist Political Participation

Belatedly, just before the tenth anniversary of the Arab Spring and Lebanon’s centennial, the country witnessed its anxiously awaited Arab Spring uprising, or what came to be known as the ‘17 October 2019 WhatsApp Revolution’. This watershed event coincided with an unprecedented collapse in the economic, political and financial system. Since 17 October 2019, the Lebanese streets and public squares have been burning with revolutionary youth fervour. Disenchanted youth, unions, Islamists and civil society organisations have been demanding an overhaul of the entire political system, coupled with the ousting of the corrupt politicians – the previous civil war (1975–1990) warlords and ruling power elite – who have been in power since the early 1980s. Why did this call for dignity and freedom come about, and how is it evolving? Is it a phase in the unfolding of the ‘Arab Spring Revolutions’? What is the role of various Lebanese political, civil society, and Islamist organisations in this ongoing process? How could the strong state known as the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ degenerate into a weak state – a ‘deep state’ and a ‘Banana Republic’ governed by the omerta of ‘vetocracy’ (consensual democracy) and ‘mafiocracy’ (crony capitalism)? This meltdown led the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to appeal to the Lebanese to ‘help us to help you’, warning of the disappearance of the Lebanese Republic if swift and drastic measures were not taken to stamp out the rampant culture of corruption and clientelism (patron-client relationships). Seen through that lens, Lebanon’s 17 October WhatsApp Revolution and mass mobilisation was a reaction against faulty governance and elitist political participation.