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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
Figure 8. The Cantons of Lebanon, 1986
During a visit to Washington in 1983, President Amin
Jumayyil meets with President Ronald Reagan
Courtesy Lebanese
Information and Research Center
A demonstration by members of the Amal movement
Courtesy As'ad AbuKhalil
Historically, political parties in Lebanon have lacked traits
common to parties in most Western democracies. Lebanese parties
often have had no ideology, have devised no programs, and have made
little effort at transcending sectarian support. In fact, despite
their claims, most parties have been thinly disguised political
machines for a particular confession or, more often, a specific
zaim. Although nondescript, broad titles have been applied,
such as National Bloc Party or Progressive Socialist Party. With
the exception of a handful of left-wing movements, most parties
have been the organizational personification of a few powerful
politicians. Even Kamal Jumblatt (also seen as Junblatt), the most
ideologically oriented of the zuama, derived his
constituents' support principally because he was a Druze leader,
not because of his political beliefs. For this reason, any one
party could count on only a few votes in the Chamber of Deputies.
This situation brought about a continuous stream of coalitions,
each often created to represent a point of view on a particular
issue. In this system, leaders could not even rely on the support
of their coreligionists; in fact, some of the most severe acrimony
has been intrasectarian. Nonetheless, in the face of challenges to
fundamental issues--such as the six-to-five formula or the pan-Arab
question--the various confessionally based parties generally closed
ranks.
Before and during the 1975 Civil War, other political groupings
were formed
(see Appendix B).
Although ideology played some role in
their formation, for the most part these alliances--the Lebanese
National Movement and the Lebanese Front--tended to be temporary
associations of politically motivated militias under the leadership
of powerful zuama, and divisions generally followed
sectarian lines. So ephemeral were these associations, however,
that after the heaviest fighting of the mid- and late 1970s ceased,
several of the groups in these coalitions turned their guns on each
other
(see The Interwar Years
, ch. 5).
Nonetheless, ideology, rather than the power and charisma of a
zaim, has been the basis for the formation of a small number
of political parties. These multisectarian groups have espoused
causes ranging from Marxism to pan-Arabism. To a limited extent,
several of these essentially leftist parties also participated in
the fighting of the 1970s.
By 1987 political parties, in the sense of constitutionally
legitimate groups seeking office, had almost become an anachronism.
By virtue of armed strength, the various militias, surrogate
armies, and foreign defense forces that controlled the nation had
divided Lebanon into several semi autonomous "cantons," each having
its own political, social, and economic structure
(see
fig. 8).
Data as of December 1987
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