WHY THE CHEHABIST STATE FAILED - THE STATE IN SOCIETY APPROACH

• Authors: Tonta Rachela
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Six years of the Fu'ad Chehab's presidency and first half of his successor's term can be regarded as a one of the most important and interesting periods in the Lebanon's history. Fu'ad Chehab was not only the first maronite president that gained large support among Muslim part of the Lebanese society but under his leadership the state was also able to gain for the first time some autonomy in relations to other social groups, especially the traditional political representatives of the religious segments. However, Fu'ad Chehab's efforts to modernize the state, to build effective administration and open the political process to young, educated and not related to traditional establishment people had failed. The aim of this paper is to analyze this part of Lebanon's history and give answer to question about the reasons of the failure of president Chehab's modernizing project. The point of reference in the discussion of this problem is the state in society approach proposed by Joel Migdal. According to him, in order to understand the complex 'nature' of the state and its actions, the reasons of strength or weakness of states, it is necessary to concentrate on processes and relations among different parts of the state and between the state and various social groups, the state itself being a coherent organization with clearly defined goals that stands apart from society; it is necessary to grasp the duality between the image and practice of the state and the ongoing conflict over domination, the imposition of rules that would be binding to the whole society.

Keywords

EN

CHEHAB FU'AD; LEBANON'S HISTORY; STATE IN SOCIETY

Discipline

• POLITICAL_SCIENCES: POLITICAL SCIENCES

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Hemispheres. Studies on Cultures and Societies
• Year: 2009
• Issue: 24
• Pages: 91-104
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Tonta Rachela

• Rachela Tonta, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Katedra Bliskiego i Dalekiego Wschodu, ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10PLAAAA080228