Power Sharing in Lebanon: Consociationalism Since 1820 by Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif

Author:Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif [Aboultaif, Eduardo Wassim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Middle Eastern, Social Science, Political Science, World, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429827051
Google: fPODDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 45695952
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-01-15T12:44:54+00:00

Ethnurgy in wartime Lebanon

Lebanese communities started to establish strong cultural identification during the civil war as they began to become aware of the need for cohesiveness, whether militarily, politically, or culturally due to the possible threat of extermination from other communities and because of the fall of the state. Despite the fact that the war started as an ideological battle between the leftist-oriented LNM and the conservative right-wing Lebanese Front, the assassination of Kamal Joumblatt in 1977 brought down the leftist camp. Hence, segmentation began to crystallize according to cultural identification, where each community formed a political group with institutions, militias, and they tended to align themselves with other communities according to their group’s interests. Militias replaced the state institutions and their anthems became the expression of cultural belonging. The Lebanese national anthem was forgotten, and the war had a cultural dimension due to the unresolved question of what the Lebanese wanted to be.61 For this purpose, community leaders emphasized narrow cultural arguments to draw lines between their communities and others.

In the absence of state institutions, communal groups began to create their own social, economic, political and educational systems to provide services for their communities, and cultural identification was the defining character in admitting or excluding a citizen into these institutions. Elites who mobilized their communities tended to be inward-looking and preoccupied with building internal solidarity, so this made them less inclined to negotiate a settlement to the conflict.62 As long as communities succeeded in keeping these institutions running and justified them on communal grounds, the prospects of finding a consociational agreement with other communities became harder. Thus, strong cultural identification and communal mobilization created a fertile ground that empowered the politics of ethnurgy.

The fact that each segment of society was established according to religious identification did not make the conflict religious. As Kakar notes, most conflicts around the world are less a matter of religiosity than of cultural identities based on religious affiliation.63 In the Lebanese case, religion and identity-based ideals were tools that served ethnurgy. The Maronites argued that they had been in Lebanon since the days of the Phoenicians, believed they were not Arabs, and propagated the view that their heritage was in danger. The new Shiite militant group Hezbollah took advantage of the mayhem and started to capitalize on a Shiite-Islamic identity to gain support among the community. The Sunnis preserved their Arabist outlook and depended on their traditional leaders, while the Druze established themselves as a secular group in what became their exclusive zones: the Shouf and the Aley district. The threat to a community’s religious identity gave birth to communalism, intolerance, and the potential for social violence,64 and this was exactly what happened in Lebanon during the civil war when communities became politicized and militarized.

In the case of the Maronites, elites used the term Maronite and Christian community interchangeably because of their perception that the role of the Maronite community was to lead the Lebanese Christians and rule Lebanon on behalf of the Christians.

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