The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent

<p dir="ltr">This essay stretches Antonio Gramsci’s core concept of the integral state to explain an enigma in contemporary Lebanon: why the massive collapse after the October 2019 protests failed to generate commensurate political, ideological, and organizational responses. It rethe...

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Main Author: Bassel F. Salloukh (17704392) (author)
Published: 2025
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author Bassel F. Salloukh (17704392)
author_facet Bassel F. Salloukh (17704392)
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Bassel F. Salloukh (17704392)
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025-07-15T09:00:00Z
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv 10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_anatomy_of_Lebanon_s_postwar_integral_state_the_political_economy_of_cartels_and_consent/31169404
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv CC BY 4.0
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Economics
Applied economics
Human society
Political science
Sociology
Cartels
elites
Gramsci Antonio
integral state
Lebanon
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Text
Journal contribution
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
text
contribution to journal
description <p dir="ltr">This essay stretches Antonio Gramsci’s core concept of the integral state to explain an enigma in contemporary Lebanon: why the massive collapse after the October 2019 protests failed to generate commensurate political, ideological, and organizational responses. It retheorizes the post-civil war state in Lebanon as a different kind of integral state, one that reflects an alternative process of state formation and historical trajectory in the Global South producing different state forms, class fractions, and social formations than those in Europe. In this case, private elite interests expressing different class fractions operate not by defining the ethical content of the state in civil society, nor by organizing consent on the cultural front of civil society, but overlap directly with state structures. Stretching Gramsci’s conceptual toolkit dissolves the differences between the state and society, and captures analytically how the postwar political economic elite representing an alliance of class fractions placed the state’s fiscal and monetary policies at the service of capital accumulation, but also to integrate substantial social constituencies into the postwar order along strictly sectarian clientelist incentives. This disaggregated cross-sectarian class interests and provided the material conditions to secure a level of sectarian ideological consent that precluded the emergence of viable political alternatives in the postwar era. The operations of the postwar integral state also truncated the terrain of civil society on which alternative organizational formations could organize in the long war of position to subvert the ideological hold of the sectarian system. The anatomy of this postwar integral state is examined as expressed in the political economy of cartels.</p><h2 dir="ltr">Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Interventions<br>License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922</a></p>
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identifier_str_mv 10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922
network_acronym_str Manara2
network_name_str Manara2
oai_identifier_str oai:figshare.com:article/31169404
publishDate 2025
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spelling The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consentBassel F. Salloukh (17704392)EconomicsApplied economicsHuman societyPolitical scienceSociologyCartelselitesGramsci Antoniointegral stateLebanon<p dir="ltr">This essay stretches Antonio Gramsci’s core concept of the integral state to explain an enigma in contemporary Lebanon: why the massive collapse after the October 2019 protests failed to generate commensurate political, ideological, and organizational responses. It retheorizes the post-civil war state in Lebanon as a different kind of integral state, one that reflects an alternative process of state formation and historical trajectory in the Global South producing different state forms, class fractions, and social formations than those in Europe. In this case, private elite interests expressing different class fractions operate not by defining the ethical content of the state in civil society, nor by organizing consent on the cultural front of civil society, but overlap directly with state structures. Stretching Gramsci’s conceptual toolkit dissolves the differences between the state and society, and captures analytically how the postwar political economic elite representing an alliance of class fractions placed the state’s fiscal and monetary policies at the service of capital accumulation, but also to integrate substantial social constituencies into the postwar order along strictly sectarian clientelist incentives. This disaggregated cross-sectarian class interests and provided the material conditions to secure a level of sectarian ideological consent that precluded the emergence of viable political alternatives in the postwar era. The operations of the postwar integral state also truncated the terrain of civil society on which alternative organizational formations could organize in the long war of position to subvert the ideological hold of the sectarian system. The anatomy of this postwar integral state is examined as expressed in the political economy of cartels.</p><h2 dir="ltr">Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Interventions<br>License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922</a></p>2025-07-15T09:00:00ZTextJournal contributioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontextcontribution to journal10.1080/1369801x.2025.2504922https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_anatomy_of_Lebanon_s_postwar_integral_state_the_political_economy_of_cartels_and_consent/31169404CC BY 4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:figshare.com:article/311694042025-07-15T09:00:00Z
spellingShingle The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
Bassel F. Salloukh (17704392)
Economics
Applied economics
Human society
Political science
Sociology
Cartels
elites
Gramsci Antonio
integral state
Lebanon
status_str publishedVersion
title The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
title_full The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
title_fullStr The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
title_full_unstemmed The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
title_short The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
title_sort The anatomy of Lebanon’s postwar integral state: the political economy of cartels and consent
topic Economics
Applied economics
Human society
Political science
Sociology
Cartels
elites
Gramsci Antonio
integral state
Lebanon