Power-sharing after the Arab Spring? Insights from Lebanon’s Political Transition

Abstract

The article looks at the legacy of consociationalism in Lebanon with the aim of illuminating some insights on the linkages between power-sharing and conflict resolution in the post-2011 Middle East. It highlights three core dilemmas or governance traps that have recurred in Lebanon’s political dynamic: the power-sharing formula’s proneness to deadlock, its dependence on the external environment as an avenue for partisanship and sectarian leverage, and its weak responsiveness to demands from below. The article shows how these dilemmas are tightly linked to the politics of sectarianism. While Lebanon’s postwar transition (1990 onward) serves as a backdrop for exploring these dilemmas, emphasis is placed on the performance of Lebanon’s political system in the post–Arab Spring era. The aim is to assess whether Lebanon’s consociational performance has matured over time. The Lebanese experience brings into sharper focus the limitations of sectarian power-sharing. Still, it provides useful insights for reshaping the debate on power-sharing in divided societies of the Arab world.

Notes

Notes

1 “Le people syrien vaut tellement mieux que d’être réduit a des sunnites et des alaouites,” quote by Jean-Pierre Filiu and Cyrille Pomès, Le Printemps des Arabes (Paris: Futuropolis, 2013).

2 Gilbert Achcar, Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016).

3 Michelle Pace and Francesco Cavatorta, “The Arab Uprisings in Theoretical Perspective: An Introduction,” Mediterranean Politics 17, no. 2 (2012): 125–38.

4 Eva Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics 36 (2004): 139–53. On authoritarian learning, see the findings of the GIGA-POMEPS Workshop, “Transnational Diffusion, Cooperation and Learning in the Middle East and North Africa: A Post-Arab Uprisings Perspective” (Hamburg, Germany, June 8–9, 2016).

5 Seyla Benhabib, “The New Legitimation Crises of Arab States and Turkey,” Philosophy and Social Criticism 40, nos. 4–5 (2014).

6 Illiya Harik, “Pluralism in the Arab World,” Journal of Democracy 5, no. 3 (1994): 43–56; Arend Lijphart, “Constitutional Design for Divided Societies,” Journal of Democracy 15, no. 2 (2004): 96–109; John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary, “Iraq’s Constitution of 2005: Liberal Consociation as Political Prescription,” International Journal of Constitutional Law 5, no. 4 (2007): 670–98.

7 Tamirace Fakhoury, “Debating Lebanon’s Power-Sharing Model: An Opportunity or an Impasse for Democratization Studies in the Middle East?” The Arab Studies Journal 22, no. 1 (2014): 230–55.

8 See Anna K. Jarstad and Timothy D. Sisk, eds., From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of Peacebuilding (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie, “The Art of the Possible: Power-sharing and Post–Civil War Democracy,” World Politics 67, no. 1 (2015): 37–71.

9 Arend Lijphart, “Consociational Democracy,” World Politics 21, no. 2 (1969): 207–25; Hans Daalder, “On the Origins of the Consociational Democracy Model,” Acta Politica 19 (1984): 97–116; Brendan O’Leary, “Power-sharing in Deeply Divided Places,” in Power-sharing in Deeply Divided Places, edited by Joanne McEvoy and Brendan O’Leary (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 1–64.

10 Arend Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977).

11 See Brian Barry, “The Consociational Model and Its Dangers,” European Journal of Political Research 3, no. 4 (1975): 393–412; Philip G. Roeder and Donald Rothchild, eds., Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005).

12 For an account on transformative power-sharing see Timothy Sisk, “Power-sharing after Civil Wars: Matching Problems to Solutions,” in Contemporary Peace Making: Conflict, Violence and Peace Processes, edited by John Darby and Roger Mac Ginty (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 139–50. See also Bassel Salloukh and Renko A. Verheij, “Transforming Power-sharing: From Corporate to Hybrid Consociation in Postwar Lebanon,” Middle East Law and Governance 9, no. 2 (2017): 147–73.

13 Imad Salamey, The Decline of Nation States after the Arab Spring: The Rise of Communitocracy (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017). For an account of why policy makers advocate power-sharing, see Allison McCulloch and Joanne McEvoy, “The International Mediation of Power-Sharing Settlements,” Cooperation and Conflict 53, no. 4 (2018): 1–9.

14 Stephan Rosiny, interview with the author, 5 Aug. 2016, Hamburg, Germany.

15 Salamey, The Decline of Nation States after the Arab Spring.

16 Therese Pettersson and Peter Wallensteen, “Armed Conflicts, 1946–2014,” Journal of Peace Research 52, no. 4 (2015): 536–50.

17 McCulloch and McEvoy, “The International Mediation of Power-Sharing Settlements.”

18 See United Nations Secretary-General, “UNTV Interview with Lakhdar Brahimi, Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the League of Arab States for Syria,” https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/note-correspondents/2013-08-22/untv-interview-lakhdar-brahimi-joint-special (accessed 1 Nov. 2018).

19 European Union Global Strategy, “Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe: A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy,” https://eeas.europa.eu/archives/docs/top_stories/pdf/eugs_review_web.pdf (accessed 4 Nov. 2018).

20 See for instance, Carlotta Gall, “As Frustrations Build in Libya, So Do Calls for Help,” https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/world/middleeast/frustration-builds-in-libya-as-peace-remains-elusive.html?mcubz=0 (accessed 10 Nov. 2018).

21 Adeed Dawisha, “The Long and Winding Road to Iraqi Democracy,” Perspectives on Politics 8, no. 3 (2010); Brendan O’Leary, How to Get Out of Iraq with Integrity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

22 Salloukh and Verheij, “Transforming Power-sharing.”

23 Lawrence Rosen, “Expecting the Unexpected: Cultural Components of Arab Governance,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 603, no. 1 (2006): 163–78.

24 See, for example, Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East,” and Jason M. Brownlee, “Low Tide after the Third Wave: Exploring Politics under Authoritarianism,” Comparative Politics 34, no. 4 (2002): 477–98.

25 See Stephan Rosiny, “Power-sharing in Syria: Lessons from Lebanon’s Experience” (No. 223, GIGA Working Papers, Hamburg, Germany, 2013). See also Tristan Dunning and Damian Doyle, “Lebanese-Style Power-Sharing Isn’t the Solution to the Syrian Impasse,” http://theconversation.com/lebanese-style-power-sharing-isnt-the-solution-to-the-syrian-impasse-51055 (accessed 18 Oct. 2018); author’s interviews with scholars and practitioners from 2014 to 2017, Beirut, Lebanon.

26 Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies.

27 Hugh Miall, Oliver Ramsbotham, and Tom Woodhouse, The Contemporary Conflict Resolution Reader (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015).

28 Jürg Steiner, Maria Clara Jaramillo, Rousiley C. M. Maia, and Simona Mameli, Deliberation across Deeply Divided Societies: Transformative Moments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

29 See, for example, Jarstad and Sisk, From War to Democracy; Philip G. Roader and Donald Rothchild, “Power-Sharing as an Impediment to Peace and Democracy,” in Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars, edited by Philip G. Roeder and Donald Rothchild (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), 29–50.

30 Theodor Hanf, Coexistence in Wartime Lebanon: Decline of a State and Rise of a Nation (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993).

31 Bassel Salloukh, “The Syrian War: Spillover Effects on Lebanon,” Middle East Policy 24, no. 1 (2017): 62–78; Martin Waehlisch and Maximilian Felsch, Lebanon and the Arab Uprisings in the Eye of the Hurricane (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

32 Tamirace Fakhoury, “Lebanon’s Perilous Balancing Act,” Current History, 114, no. 776, 349–354. On cooperation between security agencies and between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah, see Walid Hazbun, “Assembling Security in a ‘Weak State’: The Contentious Politics of Plural Governance in Lebanon Since 2005,” Third World Quarterly 37, no. 6 (2016): 1,053–70; Daniel Meier, “Hezbollah’s Shaping Lebanon Statehood,” Small Wars and Insurgencies 29, no. 3 (2018): 515–36.

33 Christopher Philipps and Morten Valbjorn, “‘What Is in a Name?’: The Role of (Different) Identities in the Multiple Proxy Wars in Syria,” Small Wars and Insurgencies 29, no. 3 (2018): 414–33.

34 Zina Moukheiber, “Lebanese Billionaire Prime Minister Forms New Government,” https://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2011/06/13/lebanese-billionaire-prime-minister-forms-new-government/#66435a553a44 (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

35 Hania Mourtada, “Sunni Leader is Named Prime Minister in Lebanon,” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/world/middleeast/tamam-salam-asked-to-form-a-government-in-lebanon.html (accessed 15 Sept. 2018).

36 Oliver Holmes, “Lebanese Parliament Extends Own Term till 2017 amid Protests,” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-parliament/lebanese-parliament-extends-own-term-till-2017-amid-protests-idUSKBN0IP18T20141105 (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

37 Laila Bassam and Erika Solomon, “Lebanon Forms Government after 10-month Deadlock,” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-government/lebanon-forms-government-after-10-month-deadlock-idUSBREA1E07S20140215 (accessed 20 Sept. 2018).

38 Ellen Francis and Layla Bassam, “Lebanon’s PM Hariri Shelves Resignation, Easing Crisis,” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-politics/lebanons-pm-hariri-shelves-resignation-easing-crisis-idUSKBN1DM0IP (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

39 For an account about the results of the 2018 elections, see L’Orient Le Jour, “Législatives Libanaises 2018,” https://www.lorientlejour.com/elections/les-résultats (accessed 11 Oct. 2018).

40 Bassem Mroue, “Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri Chosen to Form New Cabinet,” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-lebanons-hariri-on-track-to-become-prime-minister-for-third-time/ (accessed 5 Nov. 2018).

41 The Daily Star Lebanon, “As Cabinet Formation Drags, Lebanon Risks Economic Tailspin,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Local/2018/Aug-31/461858-as-cabinet-formation-drags-lebanon-risks-economic-tailspin.ashx (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

42 Marwan Asmar, “Why Lebanon’s Deadlock Continues,” https://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/why-lebanon-s-deadlock-continues-1.2286436 (accessed 5 Nov. 2018); Yara Abi Akl, “Gouvernement: Le PSP campe sur ses Positions en Attendant des ‘Propositions Sérieuses,’” https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1135470/le-psp-campe-sur-ses-positions-en-attendant-des-propositions-serieuses-.html (accessed 20 Oct. 2018).

43 Abi Akl, “Gouvernement.”

44 The Daily Star Lebanon, “LF Demands Energy or Defense as Substitute,” https://www.pressreader.com/lebanon/the-daily-star-lebanon/20181022/281505047198314 (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

45 The Associated Press, “Lebanese Paper Prints Blank Issue to Protest Gridlock,” https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/lebanese-paper-prints-blank-issue-protest-gridlock-58431268 (accessed 25 Oct. 2018).

46 Bassem Ajami, “Lebanon’s Government Paralysis: Will Hariri Blink First?” https://en.annahar.com/article/835461-lebanons-government-paralysis-will-hariri-blink-first (accessed 28 Oct. 2018); Catherine Batrouni and Marcus Hallinan, “Government (Non-)Formation in Contemporary Lebanon: Sectarianism, Power-Sharing, and Economic Immobilism,” https://civilsociety-centre.org/pdf-generate/52256 (accessed 17 Dec. 2018).

47 World Economic Forum, “Lebanon,” http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Arab-World-Competitiveness-Report-2018/WEF_GCI_2017_2018_Profile_Lebanon.pdf (accessed 19 Oct. 2018).

48 See, for instance, Batrouni and Hallinan, “Government (Non-)Formation in Contemporary Lebanon,” and Bassel Salloukh, “The Twilight of the Republic,” http://lcps-lebanon.org/featuredArticle.php?id=165 (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

49 Bassel Salloukh, “The Twilight of the Republic.”

50 Brenda Seaver, “The Regional Sources of Power-Sharing Failure: The Case of Lebanon,” Political Science Quarterly 115, no. 2 (2000): 247–71.

51 See, for example, Amanda Rizkallah, “The Paradox of Power-sharing: Stability and Fragility in Postwar Lebanon,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 40, no. 2 (2017): 2,058–76.

52 Desirée Sadek, “Naître et Renaître,” Elle Arabic editorial, 2016.

53 F. Gregory Gause, “Ideologies, Alignments, and Underbalancing in the New Middle East Cold War,” PS: Political Science and Politics 50, no. 3 (2017): 672–75.

54 Fakhoury, “Lebanon’s Perilous Balancing Act.”

55 The Daily Star Lebanon, “As Cabinet Formation Drags”; Michael Young, “Nearly Three Months after Lebanon’s Election, Hariri Is Walking a Tightrope When it Comes to Forming a New Government,” https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/nearly-three-months-after-lebanon-s-election-hariri-is-walking-a-tightrope-when-it-comes-to-forming-a-new-government-1.755508 (accessed 3 Nov. 2018).

56 See the New Arab, “Lebanon’s Walid Jumblatt Said He Prefers Death over Assad,” https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/9/17/lebanons-walid-jumblatt-prefers-death-over-assad (accessed 6 Nov. 2018); The Daily Star Lebanon, “Syria FM Says Relations with Beirut Going to Change,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2018/Sep-30/464914-syria-foreign-minister-says-relationship-with-beirut-is-going-to-change.ashx (accessed 15 Oct. 2018).

57 Mahmut Geld, “Lebanon’s Incoming Gov’t and Normalized Ties with Syria,” https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/lebanon-s-incoming-gov-t-and-normalized-ties-with-syria/1243356 (accessed 1 Nov. 2018).

58 The Daily Star Lebanon, “Syria FM Says Relations with Beirut Going to Change.”

59 Maja Janmyr, “UNHCR and the Syrian Refugee Response: Negotiating Status and Registration in Lebanon,” The International Journal of Human Rights 22, no. 3 (2017): 393–419.

60 Mélinée Le Priol, “Syrian Refugees in Lebanon a Worrying Concern for Maronite Patriarch,” https://international.la-croix.com/news/syrian-refugees-in-lebanon-a-worrying-concern-for-maronite-patriarch/7719# (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

61 Alexander Betts, Ali Ali, and Fulya Memisoglu, “Local Politics and the Syrian Refugee Crisis: Exploring Responses in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan” (Oxford Department of International Development, 2017).

62 Tamirace Fakhoury, “Governance Strategies and Refugee Response: Lebanon in the Face of Syrian Displacement,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 49, no. 4 (2017): 681–700; Carmen Geha and Joumana Talhouk, “From Recipients of Aid to Shapers of Policies: Conceptualizing Government—United Nations Relations during the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon,” Journal of Refugee Studies (2018).

63 The Government of Lebanon and the United Nations, “Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2017–2020,” http://www.un.org.lb/library/assets/LCRP%20Short%20version-015625.pdf (accessed 1 Nov. 2018).

64 Nazeer Rida, “Aoun Protests Brussels Conference Statement on Refugees,” https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1251831/aoun-protests-brussels-conference-statement-refugees (accessed 15 Aug. 2018); Hanan ElBadawi, “Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Potential Forced Return?” http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/syrian-refugees-in-lebanon-potential-forced-return (accessed 6 Nov. 2018); The Daily Star Lebanon, “International Policy Should Help Refugees Leave, Not Stay: Bassil,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2017/Aug-04/414985-international-policy-should-help-refugees-leave-not-stay-bassil.ashx (accessed 1 Aug. 2018). See also Fakhoury, “Governance Strategies and Refugee Response.”

65 Rida, “Aoun Protests Brussels Conference Statement on Refugees”; The Daily Star Lebanon, “International Policy Should Help Refugees Leave.”

66 For an account of political officials “contradictory narratives” and the functions of divergent framings in the context of Lebanon’s sectarian system, see Hashem Osseiran, “Analysis: Assad’s Allies Trying to Reshape Lebanon’s Syria Policy,” Newsdeeply, https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2017/08/23/analysis-assads-allies-trying-to-reshape-lebanons-syria-policy (accessed 1 Nov. 2018).

67 Hasan Lakkis, “Foreign Ministry Setting Plan for Syria Refugee Return,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2017/Oct-06/421700-foreign-ministry-setting-plan-for-syria-refugee-return.ashx (accessed 2 Nov. 2018); The Daily Star Lebanon, “Merehbi Rejects Coordination with Syrian Regime on Refugees,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2018/Aug-26/461211-merehbi-rejects-coordination-with-syrian-regime-on-refugees.ashx(accessed 15 Sept. 2018); The Daily Star Lebanon, “Aoun, Hariri Sound Alarm on Syrian Refugee Crisis,” https://www.pressreader.com/lebanon/the-daily-star-lebanon/20171021/281496456523780 (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

68 See, for instance, Georgi Azar, “Hezbollah to Initiate Plan for Syrian Refugees to Return,” https://en.annahar.com/article/826655-hezbollah-to-initiate-plan-for-syrian-refugees-to-return (accessed 1 Nov. 2018); Nazeer Rida, “Lebanon’s Berri Suggests Approach to Negotiate Syrian Refugees’ Return,” https://eng-archive.aawsat.com/nazeer-rida/news-middle-east/lebanons-berri-suggests-approach-negotiate-syrian-refugees-return (accessed 29 Oct. 2018).

69 Odiaspora.org, “Minister Bassil Launches the Free Patriotic Movement Refugee Return Committee,” https://odiaspora.org/2018/07/14/minister-bassil-launches-the-free-patriotic-movement-refugee-return-committee/ (accessed 6 Nov. 2018); The Daily Star Lebanon, “FPM to Study Possibility of Regional Refugee Return Panels,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2018/Jun-27/454473-fpm-to-study-possibility-of-regional-refugee-return-panels.ashx (accessed 14 Aug. 2018).

70 Georgi Azar, “Hezbollah to Initiate Plan for Syrian Refugees to Return,” https://en.annahar.com/article/826655-hezbollah-to-initiate-plan-for-syrian-refugees-to-return (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

71 See Osseiran, “Analysis.”

72 Civil society activist, interview with the author, Beirut, 15 April 2014.

73 Carmen Geha, “Politics of a Garbage Crisis: Social Networks, Narratives, and Frames of Lebanon’s 2015 Protests and Their Aftermath,” Social Movement Studies (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2018.1539665.

74 Rania Maktabi, “Female Citizenship in the Middle East: Comparing Family Law Reform in Morocco, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon,” Middle East Law and Governance 5, no. 3 (2013): 280–307.

75 Dima Dabbous, “Legal Reform and Women’s Rights in Lebanese Personal Status Laws” (CMI Report no. 3, 2017).

76 Joy Aoun and Marie-Joëlle Zahar, “Lebanon: Confessionalism, Consociationalism, and Social Cohesion,” in Peacebuilding in Deeply Divided Societies: Towards Social Cohesion? edited by Fletcher D. Cox and Timothy D. Sisk (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 103–36.

77 Dabbous, “Legal Reform and Women’s Rights.”

78 Middle East Monitor, “Draft Law in Lebanon Allows Women to Grant Citizenship to Their Children,” https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180322-draft-law-in-lebanon-allows-women-to-grant-citizenship-to-their-children/ (accessed 6 Nov. 2018).

79 Sami Atallah, “Addressing Citizens’ Concerns is Not on the Parliament’s Agenda,” https://www.lcps-lebanon.org/featuredArticle.php?id=142 (accessed 1 Nov. 2018).

80 See Human Rights Watch, “Lebanon: Events of 2016,” https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/lebanon (accessed 15 Sept. 2018).

81 See, for example, Olivia Alabaster, “KAFA Proposes Draft Law to Replace ‘Kafala’ System for Migrant Workers,” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2012/Feb-25/164572-kafa-proposes-draft-law-to-replace-kafala-system-for-migrant-workers.ashx (accessed 15 Aug. 2018); Tim Teeman, “‘Love Always Wins’: Inside the Fight for LGBT Equality in Lebanon,” https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-fight-for-lgbt-equality-in-lebanon (accessed 29 Oct. 2018).

82 Pew Research Center, “Globally, Broad Support for Representative and Direct Democracy: Many Unhappy with Current Political System,” https://www.lcps-lebanon.org/featuredArticle.php?id=142 (accessed 5 Oct. 2018).

83 Atallah, “Addressing Citizens’ Concerns.”

84 See Batrouni and Hallinan, “Government (Non-)Formation in Contemporary Lebanon”; Michael Hudson, The Precarious Republic (New York: Random House, 1968); Joseph Jabbra and Nancy Jabbra, “Consociational Democracy in Lebanon: A Flawed System of Governance,” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 17, no. 2 (2001): 71–89; Augustus R. Norton, “Lebanon after Taif: Is the Civil War Over?” The Middle East Journal 45, no. 3 (1991): 457–73; Bassel Salloukh and Janine Clark, “Elite Strategies, Civil Society, and Sectarian Identities in Postwar Lebanon,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45, no. 4 (2013): 731–49; Marie-Joëlle Zahar, “Power-sharing in Lebanon: Foreign Protectors, Domestic Peace, and Democratic Failure,” in Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars, edited by Philip G. Roeder and Donald Rothchild (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), 219–40.

85 Salloukh and Clark, “Elite Strategies,” 744.

86 Gerhard Lehmbruch, “Consociational Democracy in the International System,” European Journal of Political Research 3, no. 4 (1975): 377–91.

87 See Eric Davis, “A Sectarian Middle East?” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 40, no. 4 (2008): 555–58; Fakhoury, “Debating Lebanon’s Power-Sharing Model”; Salloukh and Verheij, “Transforming Power-sharing.”

88 Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies.

89 Steiner, Jaramillo, Maia, and Mameli, Deliberation across Deeply Divided Societies.

90 Salloukh and Clark, “Elite Strategies.”

91 See, for example, John Nagle, “Between Entrenchment, Reform and Transformation: Ethnicity and Lebanon’s Consociational Democracy,” Democratization 23, no. 7 (2015): 1,144–61; Paula Pickering, “Generating Social Capital for Bridging Ethnic Divisions in the Balkans,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 29, no. 1 (2006): 79–103.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamirace Fakhoury

Tamirace Fakhoury is associate professor in political science and international affairs in the Department of Social Sciences at the Lebanese American University (Byblos/Beirut). Her research interests include power-sharing and democratization in divided societies and migration and refugee governance.