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Consociational Democracy and Peripheral Capitalism in Late-Modernising Societies: a Political Economy of Lebanon

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Consociational Democracy and Peripheral Capitalism in Late-Modernising Societies: a Political Economy of Lebanon Durham E-Theses Consociational Democracy and Peripheral Capitalism in Late-Modernising Societies: A Political Economy of Lebanon MAREI, FOUAD,MOHAMED,GEHAD,MOHAM How to cite: MAREI, FOUAD,MOHAMED,GEHAD,MOHAM (2012) Consociational Democracy and Peripheral Capitalism in Late-Modernising Societies: A Political Economy of Lebanon, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3472/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 CONSOCIATIONAL DEMOCRACY AND PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM IN LATE-MODERNISING SOCIETIES A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LEBANON Fouad Gehad Marei THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Durham University December 2011 1 2 ABSTRACT CONSOCIATIONAL DEMOCRACY AND PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM IN LATE-MODERNISING SOCIETIES: A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LEBANON Fouad Gehad Marei Following the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri in 2005, Lebanon witnessed vigorous debate over the nature of its political system raising the question of whether it is based on consociation between confessions or consensus and balance of power between political factions. Lebanon has traditionally alternated between several extremes: from ‘the happy phenomenon’, a liberal example of self-perpetuating prosperity and ‘the only Arab democracy’ to a haven for warlords and the scene for recurring political impasses and violence. Underpinning these extremes, however, is the national myth that Lebanon is the ‘Switzerland of the East’. Whether this refers to its mountainous geography, freewheeling capitalism, salience of the tertiary sector or the politico-cultural cantonisation of the country is the subject matter of this research. This study explores political economy and political culture in Lebanon by locating the confessional subcultures within the theoretical framework of ‘hybrid modernities’. The research presented in this study, hence, aims to make sense of the perennial cycles of conflict and political impasses which have scarred modern Lebanese history. This is done by critically examining the intersections between consociationalism as a political superstructure, peripheral capitalism as a political economy and confessionalism as a political paradigm. The theory of ‘hybrid modernities’ is utilised in an attempt to redefine ‘modernity’ as an inclusionary and dynamic process whereby multiple socio-cultural projects are continually constructed and reconstructed through negotiation and conflict, hence, producing a hybrid order. Conflict is, therefore, interpreted as a mechanism of redistribution and negotiation between multiple subnational centres as opposed to a modality of state-society relations. Accordingly, the vulnerabilities of modernity and the unintelligibility of its constellations are mitigated not through bureaucratic universalism and the logics of the market, but through asymmetric relations of power between zu‘ama (patrons) and their ’atbā‘ (clients). The pervasiveness of political patronage, therefore, is not a relic of pre-modernity but a ‘modern’ and adaptive response to the disarticulations of Lebanese capitalism. Patron-client dyads capitalise on and reinforce social relations within vertical segments, hence, modernising and instrumentalising ‘the confession’. Social change, therefore, emanates from the subnational periphery (the confession) and targets the subnational and, eventually, the national centre. In responding to the aims and objectives of this study, ethnographic research was conducted to explore the intersections between the disarticulations of late developmentalism in Lebanon and the social construction of ‘imagined communities’. Focusing on the triangulation of consociationalism, peripheral capitalism and confessionalism as the political modus operandi in Lebanon and the Shi‘a as a subnational ‘imagined community’, this research explores the intersections between political economy and political culture in the production of multiple hybrid modernities within the multi- centred Lebanese system. This is achieved by examining the political economy dynamics of the social construction of ‘the Shi‘a’ as well as the ontological worldviews and modus vivendi which underpin its socio-cultural project. In this context, Hezbollah is conceptualised as the ‘cohesive core’ of a social movement which articulates its own authenticated modernity and produces social change through a dynamic and bidirectional process facilitated by the party’s monolithic non-state welfare sector, civil society, media and the ulema. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 16 INTRODUCTION 19 0.1 Research Outline 20 0.2 Research Questions 24 0.3 Research Methodology 25 0.4 Organisation of the Research 34 CHAPTER ONE: A COMPARATIVE CONCEPTUALISATION OF CONSOCIATIONAL 37 DEMOCRACY 1.1 The Study of Government in Plural Societies 38 1.2 Institutionalising Consociationalism 43 1.3 Structure and Management of Cleavages 47 1.4 Critique of Consociationalism 49 1.5 Consociationalism in Western Europe 51 1.6 Trajectories of Consociational Government 57 1.7 Consociationalism in Post-Conflict Societies 59 1.8 Why Maintain a Fragmented Existence? 61 1.9 Concluding Remarks 62 CHAPTER TWO: HYBRID MODERNITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST 65 2.1 The Methodological Relevance of Hybrid Modernities 66 2.2 What Does It Mean to ‘Be Modern’ 69 2.3 Pre-Modern Arabo-Islamic Civilisation 75 2.4 The Perplexed Transformations of Late Modernity 82 2.5 The Nahda: Arabs’ Incomplete Modernity 87 2.6 Modernity, Postmodernity and Hybrid Modernities 98 2.7 Conclusions: Institutional and Epistemological ‘Hybrid Modernities’ 103 CHAPTER THREE: TRANSITING TO MODERNITY: SOCIAL ORDER IN EARLY-MODERN 105 LEBANON 3.1 Modernity in Greater Syria 107 3.2 Lebanon: Diverging from Arab Modernities 112 3.3 The Historical Origins of Lebanese Consociationalism 120 3.4 Consociationalism in Modern Lebanon 125 3.5 Conclusions: Political Families, Spiritual Families and the Politics of Consensus 129 4 CHAPTER FOUR: PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM AND CONFESSIONAL-CONSOCIATIONAL 133 DEMOCRACY IN LEBANON 4.1 A Sectarian State or a State of Sectarianism? 135 4.2 The Political Economy of the Capitalist Transformation 142 4.3 The Hybrid Dominant Class in Lebanon 157 4.4 Conclusions: The Confessional Alternative to Class Struggle 165 CHAPTER FIVE: ZU‘AMA AND THE INTEGRATIVE FUNCTIONS OF PATRONAGE IN 167 MODERN LEBANON 5.1 Patrons and Clients in Modern, Capitalist Societies 171 5.2 The Changing Patterns of Patronage in Lebanon 177 5.3 Chehab’s ‘Crusade’: Undermining Patrons; Not Patronage 187 5.4 The Dysfunctionalism of the Patronage Regime in the 1970s 189 5.5 The Rise and Fall of Lebanon’s Patronage Democracy 194 CHAPTER SIX: CONFESSIONALISM AND MILITIA PATRONAGE: LEBANON IN CIVIL WAR 197 6.1 The Disillusionment and Radicalisation of the Counter-Elite 199 6.2 Communalising Shiites’ Struggle against Deprivation 201 6.3 Bachir Gemayel and ‘the Maronite Alternative’ 207 6.4 The Collapse of Lebanon’s Patronage Democracy 209 6.5 The War Order and the Territorialisation of the Confession 211 6.6 Conclusions: Militiamen, Statesmen and Businessmen 217 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE NEOLIBERAL ECONOMY AND THE POLITICS OF NEO-ZA‘IMISM IN 219 POSTWAR LEBANON 7.1 The ‘Negotiated’ Transition: ‘Integrating’ the Wartime Elite 223 7.2 Neo-Za‘imism: Warlords-turned-Statesmen and the Spoils of Public Office 225 7.3 Neoliberalism and the Opportunity Spaces for Patronage 229 7.4 Almustaqbal: A Coalition of Businessmen-Statesmen 236 7.5 Hezbollah: From Revolution to the Politics of Business 243 7.6 Competition and Opposition Between March-8 and March-14 252 7.7 Conclusions: Conceptualising Patronage in Postwar Lebanon 254 5 CHAPTER EIGHT: RETURNING TO POLITICAL PARTIES? POLITICAL MOBILISATION AND 257 SOCIAL CHANGE IN POSTWAR LEBANON 8.1 The ‘Extended’ Confessional Party 259 8.2 Family, Confession and Charisma: Party Politics and Political Mobilisation in 264 Contemporary Lebanon 8.3 Hezbollah: Lebanon’s only Political Party? – A Micro-Level Case in Hybrid Modernities 272 8.4 Hezbollah: The Methods and Strategies of Social Change 277 8.5 Conclusions 293 CHAPTER NINE: CONTEXTUALISING THE FINDINGS ON LEBANON’S CLIENTELIST- 297 CONSOCIATIONALISM: AN INTERPRETATIVE APPROACH 9.1. Assessing the Theoretical Framework: Consociationalism as a Hybrid Modernity 298 9.2 The Structure of Cleavages in Lebanon’s Divided House 303 9.3 The Elite in Lebanon: Acquiescence and Clientelism 311 9.4 Institutional Structures of Clientelist-Consociationalism 313 9.5 Conceptualising Lebanon’s Clientelist-Consociationalism 327 CONCLUDING REMARKS 333 10.1 Conclusion 334 10.2 Strengths and Limitations 336 10.3 Future Research Directions 339 10.4 Epilogue 340 APPENDICES 341 1. Consociationalism in Parliament 342 2. Consociationalism in the Cabinet 347 3. Mapping the Sectoral, Socioeconomic and Geographic Cleavages 362 4. Mapping
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