ABSTRACT
The transformation of Lebanon from “an agrarian republic into an extended city state,” and the ramifications that entailed for the Shi’a community have proven to be one of the determining forces behind its politicization. In South Lebanon and the Biqa’, big agribusinesses emerged through the acquisition by entrepreneurs and Shi’a émigrés of large tracts of land that had formerly belonged to the dominant families of the regions. The pressures brought to bear on Shi’a society by the relative decline of the agricultural sector were aggravated by the regional, and therefore communal, concentration of the infrastructure needed for the other sectors of the Lebanese economy in non-Shi’a areas. The other statistics presented in Table 2.3 further confirm the relative deprivation and unequal development of South Lebanon and the Biqa’. The age structure of the migrating population initially favored adult males capable of work with families to support. This served to maintain the regional-communal connection.
