Lebanon's challenged stability in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis

Schöpfer, Liliane Alicia

4. term

Global Refugee Studies, Master

2015

2015-06-24

65 pages

The Syrian refugee crisis, a result of the Syrian civil war, has been in the center of political debates for more than four years and has become one of the longest humanitarian crises ever experienced in the contemporary world. This thesis seeks to examine the case of Lebanon, one of the most affected countries of the Syrian refugee crisis, as it has welcomed the largest amount of Syrian refugees in proportion to the size of the country. This thesis is a library-based research that makes use of various primary and secondary data as well as of two main theories: Arend Lijphart’s theory of consociational democracy and Joel Migdal’s state-in-society theory. Firstly, the thesis will argue that Lebanon has faced major socio-economic and political challenges. The thesis will highlight the fact that not only Lebanon’s economy was affected, but that there has been growing sectarian tensions in an already fragile country and that Lebanon’s social contract has faced difficulties. The theory of consociational democracy will be applied to the Lebanese political regime and conclusions about the difficulties to maintain a consociational system will be drawn. Secondly, the thesis will argue that Lebanon’s sovereignty has been challenged by the presence of Syrian refugees. The state-in-society theory will be used to analyze the Lebanese state’s ability to maintain social control over its population as well as to highlight Lebanon’s main challenger, Hezbollah, which has made use of the Syrian refugee crisis to challenge the Lebanese state.

Syrian refugees ; Lebanese political regime ; consociationalism ; stability ; state-in-society ; Hezbollah

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