Since the assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005, the Lebanese national scene has been split between two multi-denominational coalitions. The denominational political parties, Hezbollah and Amal, have profited from majority rule and a quota-based electoral system to win nearly all Shiite parliamentary seats in the 2009 legislative elections. With help from their Christian and Druze allies, they have propelled themselves to the center of state power, eventually becoming the ruling majority. They justify their hold on the Shiite electorate by the imposition of a unified representation of identities in a hegemonic discourse which emphasizes denominational memory and the struggle against Israel. Shiite unanimity has nevertheless been called into question by the course and outcome of the 2010 municipal elections. Mobilizing secondary actors and focusing on local issues, these elections revealed that, like other denominations, the Shiite denomination contains a plurality of different positions. They also suggested that electoral reform, which has not taken place in eight decades, would contribute to alter modes of identification and frameworks of mobilization.

Critique internationale (Paris. 1998)

thema: Comment la compétition démocratique travaille les identités collectives