Abstract:
This thesis tries to trace the effect of Michel Chiha’s ideas about Lebanon in Rafik
Hariri’s discourse. Chiha is arguably the founder of the 1926 constitution, the
architect of the Lebanese economy, and the theorist of the Lebanese political system.
Rafik Hariri, on the other hand, is the Godfather of Ta‘ef Accord signed in 1989 and
the architect of the reconstruction plan. Two main political figures lived in totally
different eras, yet still share many similarities. These similarities are mainly derived
from a shared discourse that links identity to geography. Accordingly, the political
and economic identity of Lebanon is defined by reference to a geographic conceptual
frame. In this vein, Lebanon is defined as a haven for minorities whose inhabitants are
born to be traders. This conceptual frame has been inherited by the political class
since the formation of Lebanon in 1920. Chiha propagated and theorized for Lebanon
as a permanent entity for “inter-sharing minorities” and as having a free market
economy. Hariri adopted this vision of Lebanon after a 15 years civil war. Such a
relation between Hariri and Chiha might look irrelevant because of their different
sectarian background. However, this is the main claim of this thesis, which is figuring
out the role of the same class interest in shaping Chiha’s and Hariri’s discourses. This
will be achieved by analyzing and comparing the main features of their respective
discourses, in order to show where the two diverge and converge, and at what points
they contradict each other, and why?
