This paper presents some preliminary results of a three-year project funded by the German Research Foundation. The project is a comparative study of the political, social, economical, and cultural development of political parties in Lebanon in historical perspective. The aim of the project is to identify development tendencies of parties in Lebanon and general structural problems for parties within the Lebanese political system. The civil war period (1975-1990) was crucial for the further development of political parties in Lebanon as it caused many internal changes (leadership, organisational structure, funding) and also shifted the complex power structures within the fragmented political system in Lebanon. The experience of regional, by party and militia operated civil administrations after the break-down of the state in Lebanon altered the perspective of the parties and influenced their post-war policies until the present day. This paper will compare the civil administrations created by two Lebanese parties and their militias during the civil war in Lebanon: The "Civil Administration of the Mountains" which was created by the Druze Progressive Socialist Party and its militia and its counterpart formed and maintained by the Christian-Maronite Kataeb Party and the Lebanese Forces militia coalition. The comparison is based on the nascent theory of "orders of violence", presently shaped by the German Political Science Association's working group "Orders of Violence". Grounded on the assumption that wars have also a constitutive character, they can be regarded as alternative forms of social order, as a social structure and process, with an economical, political, and symbolic dimension. In (civil) war situations established social rules of a society were abrogated while new social orders were established and perpetuated by use of violence. Violent non-state actors create more or less institutionalized structures which can be classified in the range between two opposing ideal types of orders of violence: Warlord figurations and quasi-states. Different aspects of the two selected civil administrations like their basic concept, the services which were provided, their financing, and the connection with party and militia will be compared. By emphasizing the differences and similarities between them, they shall be classified on the basis of the above mentioned theoretical framework. The paper is based mainly on following sources: First, interviews with party officials of both parties who participated in the administrations. Second, analysis of primary sources regarding the civil administrations. Third, secondary literature about civil administrations, war economy and militias in the Lebanese civil war.