Convergence of External and Internal Consociational Engineering

Abstract

Lebanon’s experience with consociationalism predates the creation of the modern state in 1920. A number of consociational arrangements were negotiated to manage the politics of the new state. The most prominent among these was the National Pact of 1943 that lasted for around 30 years, until it collapsed in 1975 under the weight of overlapping domestic and external pressures. The aim of this thesis is not to revisit the reasons for the success or failure of consociationalism in Lebanon, rather to focus on one particular aspect: namely, the politics of consociational engineering. More specifically, this thesis aims at tracing the evolution of consociational agreements in Lebanon by undertaking a systemic comparative analysis of the main constitutional reforms proposed in successive rounds of negotiations and documents starting in the Geneva national dialogue, the Lausanne national dialogue, the Tripartite agreement, the Hariri paper, and culminating in the 1989 Taif agreement. An analysis of the proposed documents complemented by interviews with key participants allows us to recreate Lebanon’s late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s crucial role and political philosophy throughout this process of consociational engineering.