عنوان

A Deal with the Devil: The Political Economy of Lebanon, 1943-75

TL48428

انگلیسی

A Deal with the Devil: The Political Economy of Lebanon, 1943-75

[Thesis]

Nick Chafic Kardahji

Doumani, Beshara; Vernon, James

University of California, Berkeley

2015

219

Committee members: Sargent, Daniel J.; Tugal, Cihan Z.

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-01637-5

Ph.D.

History

University of California, Berkeley

2015

This dissertation is a contribution to the reframing of the history of postcolonial Lebanon, and in particular the era between independence from France and the outbreak of the civil war of 1975-90. The dissertation's central argument is that rather than seeing postcolonial Lebanese history as a product of the contentious interaction between sectarian social groups, as is common in much of the literature on Lebanon, it is more useful to see that history as a product of the struggle to impose and maintain a liberal, laissez-faire economic model by the dominant faction of the postcolonial ruling elite, the commercial-financial bourgeoisie. This economic model entailed, in essence, appending the Lebanese economy to those of other regional powers, particularly the oil states of the Gulf, in order to continue the country's colonial-era role as an entrepôt for the broader Middle East. As a result of its attachment to the economies of regional states, and its concentration in finance, trade, and the service sector, the Lebanese model was both highly unstable and grossly unequal. As a consequence, the Lebanese ruling elite struggled to impose and maintain this model, and they did so only by crafting a highly rigid political system that denied space to even the more moderate reformist forces. These features of the Lebanese system, its instability, inequity, and its rigidity, played a determining role in shaping Lebanon's postcolonial history.

Middle Eastern history; Political science

Social sciences;Intra bank;Labor movement;Lebanon;Litani river project;Political economy

Kraus, Nicole M. Butkovich

Doumani, Beshara; Vernon, James

History

University of California, Berkeley

1726027471; 3720596

p

[Thesis]

276903

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