| Abstrakt: |
While contentious politics literature links protest and voting as connected forms of claim making, in Lebanon, scholars, activists, and citizens generally have treated them as distinct phenomena, resulting in cycles of anti-system protests and elections characterized by wins by the status quo and low turnout. This unusual situation reflects how confessionalism has become deeply intertwined with neoliberalism, closing off necessary opportunity structures for change. Neoliberal policies, even while causing general harm to the average Lebanese citizen, generated high rents which sectarian parties could then distribute to supporters. To keep this system going, the collusive sectarian elite consciously and largely successfully removed economic policy as an electoral issue. By starting from how the ruling sectarian parties dominate the economy, it is possible to explain the cycles of protest and voting behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
