Beyond the Logics of Identity Politics: Voting Behavior in Lebanon’s 2018 Elections

Abstract

Due to the overriding presence of identity politics in the Lebanese context, analyses of voting behavior have focused on sectarian cleavages and clientelistic practices as the main determinants that shape the voting choice, often overshadowing other important dynamics at hand. To better grasp why the Lebanese masses follow and reproduce the sectarian political elites beyond essentializing arguments that consider Lebanese citizens struck by the “herd effect”, this thesis presents a nuanced understanding of voting behavior in Lebanon’s 2018 parliamentary elections, with a focus on Beirut I and II electoral districts. Based on raw data from the 2018 election results as well as semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 21 voters, this thesis contends that understanding co-ethnic voting from a socio-political lens, rather than a sectarian one, can help us make better sense of Lebanon’s polarized politics. Looking at the apolitical discourse advanced by civil society voters, this thesis argues that the political is once again being buried alive in the context of an all-out rejection of politics by the anti-establishment voters. Finally, this thesis explores the intersectional ways through which sect, kinship, class, gender, geography, and milieu, among other social factors, mutually influence and shape individual’s complex identities, and thus in turn, their political behaviors.