ABSTRACT
Lebanon—wrecked and wretched—was once considered a prototype to be emulated by developing states. In short, the carnage on the Lebanese battlefield has obscured the real story in Lebanon: social and political change. Lebanon was merely the stage upon which the Palestinian drama was played. Although a large number of stories were filed with a Beirut dateline, many did not deal with Lebanon at all. Scholars intrigued by the politics of Lebanon often found it safer to study from afar rather than risk cherished myths by actually visiting the country. Unfortunately, Lebanon’s confessional political system proved to be exceedingly fragile and unresponsive to demands spawned by demographic, social, economic, and political changes. A decisive determinant of the system’s fragility was the redrawing of Lebanon’s boundaries by the French in 1920. Prior to 1975, many economic development specialists considered Lebanon to have a model developing economy.
