Paper short abstract:

A conceptualisation and contextualisation of religion, specifically, and identity, generally, in the fields of governance and development based on research previously carried out which involved primary data collection in Lebanon.

Paper long abstract:

The 2019 Lebanese Revolution and the 2020 Beirut Blast have intermittently placed Lebanon under the international spotlight. The once prosperous beacon of safety in a largely turbulent region had succumbed to the instability that has long surrounded it, and Lebanon is now on the verge of becoming a failed state. The international community has repeatedly reduced the issue to incompetence. However, this reductionist view of Lebanese politics and governance compounds any comprehensive understanding of the issue and, thus, only makes it more difficult for the international community to engage with Lebanon.

The underlying cause, as this piece of work argues, is the system of consociational governance, which dates back to Ottoman and French colonial rule in the region. Consociationalism has institutionalised sectarian identity as a condition of participation within the state and has further entrenched sectarian divisions in the country. Furthermore, the state has been mechanised by a 'politico-sectarian elite', consisting of the established political and religious leaders of Lebanon, to deliver development along sect lines to ensure electoral success through clientelist networks comprised of FBOs.

My research assessed the literature on consociational governance, studied the linkages between consociationalism and development, and surveyed 270 respondents from Lebanon. It argued and concluded that consociational governance has impeded development in Lebanon, that it has negatively impacted the state and its citizenry and that it has led to the rapid demise and disintegration of the Lebanese state.