ABSTRACT
Ethnurgy preserved its dominance in Lebanese society, which made the full consociational approach to Lebanese politics critical to preserve stability. From 1991 until 2005, consociational practices in Lebanon were dominated by the Syrian regime. After the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, Lebanese elites had to learn how to work in a consociational system in the absence of an external arbitrator. This did not always go smoothly: the clashes between the 8 and 14 March alliances in May 2008 could have led to another civil war. The security amendments introduced to the Lebanese army are critical to an understanding of the legitimacy of armed forces in such a deeply divided society. This chapter also compares and contrasts Lebanon with other consociational system, to discuss the importance of power-sharing arrangements in Lebanon, in order to study the positive and negative aspects of the Lebanese consociation.
