Democracy and Power-Sharing in Stormy Weather The Case of Lebanon
Since the inception of the fragile nation-state in 1943, Lebanon has been faced with the constantly unstable predicament of being torn between Middle Eastern and Western orbits. After examining Lebanon’s pre-war consociational democracy as well as the fac
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VS RESEARCH
Tamirace Fakhoury Mühlbacher
Democracy and Power-Sharing in Stormy Weather The Case of Lebanon
With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Theodor Hanf
VS RESEARCH
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Dissertation Universität Freiburg, 2007 Gedruckt mit Unterstützung des Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes
1st Edition 2009 All rights reserved © VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften | GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden 2009 Editorial Office: Dorothee Koch / Anita Wilke VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften is part of the specialist publishing group Springer Science+Business Media. www.vs-verlag.de No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Registered and/or industrial names, trade names, trade descriptions etc. cited in this publication are part of the law for trade-mark protection and may not be used free in any form or by any means even if this is not specifically marked. Cover design: KünkelLopka Medienentwicklung, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany ISBN 978-3-531-16529-5
To the memory of Riad Fakhoury
Foreword
Is democracy possible only in homogeneous societies? Does heterogeneity exclude a stable democracy? Throughout history, ethnic, linguistic, or religious homogeneity whether by circumstance, coercion, or choice, has seemingly been conducive to democracy. In France, democracy was established after the imposition of religious uniformity and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The United States pulled in immigrants who renounced their original affiliations to forge a new identity in a newly born state. Still, defying assumptions, democracies have emerged in heterogeneous states such as the Swiss Confederation, the Successor States of the Holy Roman Empire and, later, those carved out of the previous colonial empires. One common feature is the failure of – often violent – attempts to enforce homogeneity, or the lack of any such attempt in the first place. In the course of time, these divided societies have learned to live in diversity, to pacify their differences, and to find a path towards peace or at least accommodation. In sum, they went beyond forms of separating powers to sharing power. Whether defined by ethnicity, language, religion, or even ideology, communities agreed to a pact on participating in a joint government based on proportional or even equal representation. It is noteworthy that political systems based on power-sharing were long marginal in mainstream political science which laid an emphasis on democratic transitions in homogeneous societies and on socio-economic or cultural prerequisites that facilitate the rise of democracy. However, this changed in the 19
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