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Ruptures within a (Near)Perfect Dictatorship? Revolution and the Possibility of New Citizenship in Lebanon
Abstract
How can we better comprehend the ongoing demonstrations in Lebanon? Is the slogan “kellon ya‘ani kellon” (“all of them means all of them”) just a banner, or is it a rupture in the political history and imaginary of Lebanon? Drawing from the rich, emerging literature on citizenship in the Arab world, this paper interrogates the potential new, groundbreaking understandings and models of citizenship that have emerged from the ongoing October 17 revolution in Lebanon. It begins by tracing the development of the citizen-subject in Lebanon from the 19th century to the contemporary post-war period in order to elucidate explicitly the essence of the citizen-subject from a citizenship theory perspective. The analysis then proceeds to examine nascent reflections on citizenship and revolution that have appeared in newspapers, social media, public squares, and cultural productions since October 17, 2019. By considering how citizens accept, challenge, and propose new practices and models of citizenship, it becomes possible to see that past legacies either trigger, or are made themselves felt on, contemporary actions. The paper finds that a novel, non-sectarian model of citizenship is emerging in Lebanon—as seen when citizens participating in demonstrations performed and articulated their setting separate from institutionalized sectarian identifications to hold political leaders accountable. However, this paper also cautions that the emergence of this non-sectarian citizenship model alone is unlikely to overthrow the established citizenship regime in the immediate future. This reflects in part that the prevailing political system, which despite its incompetency, is something akin to a near-perfect dictatorship that has, in the words of activist Wadad Halwani, caused the notion of citizenship to “lose its meaning,” creating a long road ahead to reimagining and recreating citizenship across Lebanon.
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