Consociationalism in Lebanon 1943-2016

Najlah Attiah 1301 Beirut & Science 607 Byblos

The Department of Social Sciences is organizing a lecture titled: “Consociationalism in Lebanon 1943-2016” by Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif.

Lebanon’s political system is characterized as being a consociational democracy. The problem in the study of Lebanon’s political predicament is the absence of a balance between internal and external factors that hamper stability in Lebanon. Consociational practices in Lebanon are hampered by three main characteristics of the country: ethnurgy (the politicization of cultural identities), mobilization, memory and trauma. There is a very important role for external factors that hinder or promote stability, but external elements should not be seen as the sole factor that affects Lebanon’s political system. Through a look at politics in Lebanon from 1943 until today, we can determine the interplay between internal and external factors which hampered the country’s stability.

Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Otago, Department of Politics, in New Zealand. He has recently submitted his dissertation entitled “The Development of Consociational Politics in Lebanon: 1825-2015”. Aboultaif has six academic publications that deal with different political aspects in the Middle East.