ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the different proposals from communities and political parties that played an important role in the synthesis of the Taif Accord of 1989. The Lebanese civil war began in 1975 and ended in 1990, and allowed militias to take control over large areas of Lebanon. It is also critically important to recall the events of the war, and the external intervention in Lebanon by Syria, Israel and the international community. In this era, ethnurgy emerged with a long-term impact, as it sharpened communal identification, empowered by communal memory and trauma. This led to strong military mobilization in Lebanon that fed on the Lebanese civil war. The changes to the system introduced by the Taif Agreement transformed Lebanon from a semi-consociation to a full consociational system.
