Counterrevolutionary Imaginaries: Neoliberal Co-optation in Lebanon's New Opposition

Abstract

Despite its scale, revolutionary fervor, and temporarily creating a new field of possibilities, Lebanon’s 2019 uprising did not manage to overthrow the country's neoliberal-sectarian regime due to a range of counterrevolutionary mechanisms. Primary interviews conducted with key members of anti-establishment groups reveal that counterrevolutionary elements could even be found within Lebanon’s new opposition. By examining the policy stances, strategies, and ideologies of new groups that took part in the 2022 general elections, the thesis argues that, over time, reformists who do not seek to fundamentally reimagine the political system took over the oppositionist sphere and, through a range of strategic choices, deradicalized the revolutionary movement, steering it towards a trajectory of co-optation by traditional opposition actors in the March 14 political camp. More specifically, a narrowing down of fields of possibilities and a lowering of political expectations occurred under the guise of a pragmatism informed by neoliberal ideology. This ideology, the thesis argues, is part of a highly effective and growing toolbox of counterrevolutionary instruments that limits political imaginaries, dilutes leftist aims, and subtly reproduces the capitalist status-quo around the world.