Literature on democratisation in the Arab world has generally focused on the region’s resistance to democracy and the endurance of its authoritarian regimes. However, recent Arab revolts and uprisings have unsettled established paradigms and have called for reconceptualising academic debates on transitional politics in the Region. The Domino effect of economic and political contestation from Tunisia to Yemen has spurred initial but groundbreaking reflections on democratisation attempts from below. This paper attracts attention to the rather irregular and asymmetrical patterns of political change in the Arab world. It studies the Lebanese case in the wave of Arab revolts and illustrates how the longstanding albeit defective Arab democracy is, paradoxically enough, and contrary to liberalizing ventures in Tunisia and Egypt, experiencing a backlash. Shackled by exogenous and endogenous constraints causing bipolar cleavages in the country, the small Arab republic is facing various a trade off between liberalisation and stability. Against the backdrop of Arab change, the Lebanese case conveys various lessons as to the limitations of consolidating democracy in an unstable environment.