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Co-optation, Counter-Narratives, and Repression: Protesting Lebanon's Sectarian Power-Sharing Regime
- The Middle East Journal
- Middle East Institute
- Volume 73, Number 1, Spring 2019
- pp. 9-28
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
This article focuses on how the Lebanese government and political establishment reacted to two waves of protest movements that used slogans decrying the country's sectarian system of government. Much of the literature on Lebanon's power-sharing regime has focused on internal schisms and the challenges of mobilization against it, but little has been done to understand how it responds to anti-sectarian mobilization. I argue that the government and sectarian establishment employ co-optation, counter-narratives, and repression to demobilize protests that challenge the core pillars of sectarian representation.