Research Article
Beyond the Confessional State: Power, Authority, and Political Order in Contemporary Lebanon
Shaul Michael Gabbay*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2026
Pages:
258-266
Received:
27 September 2026
Accepted:
5 October 2026
Published:
23 October 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.jpsir.20260904.11
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Abstract: Lebanon is commonly interpreted through confessionalism, but formal confessional institutions alone do not explain how citizens obtain access to the state, how organizations exercise authority, or why political arrangements persist through repeated crises. This article presents a conceptual synthesis of scholarship on Lebanese confessionalism, clientelism, welfare provision, civil society, political economy, and armed authority, supplemented by recent survey research and primary institutional reporting on developments after 2019. It compares how brokerage and relational access operate across political families, sectarian parties, welfare organizations, municipalities, armed actors, diaspora ties, and foreign patronage, and how successive economic, institutional, and security shocks alter the value of those relationships. The analysis is interpretive rather than statistical and does not claim representative measurement of individual attitudes or causal effects. Building on Portes's treatment of the negative consequences of social capital and on network theory's account of position-dependent resources, the article uses social liability to identify the costs attached to otherwise useful ties and network revaluation to trace changes in their practical value. The Lebanese evidence indicates that scarcity can simultaneously weaken patrons' distributive capacity and increase the premium on privileged access, while institutional reform matters to the extent that citizens become less dependent on brokers. The declining need to locate “the right person” is proposed as an observable indicator of reform.
Abstract: Lebanon is commonly interpreted through confessionalism, but formal confessional institutions alone do not explain how citizens obtain access to the state, how organizations exercise authority, or why political arrangements persist through repeated crises. This article presents a conceptual synthesis of scholarship on Lebanese confessionalism, clie...
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