Consociational Trash: Mobilization Dynamics and Challenges to Mass Protests in Lebanon

Lebanon did not undergo an “Arab Spring” in 2011. Instead, Lebanon’s sectarian consociational system became more enshrined, albeit dysfunctional. The Lebanese model system requires based political decisions on consensus of elite sectarian representatives. The absence of consensus leads to cycles of deadlock in both legislative and executive branches. While this deadlock has led to the failure of parliament to elect a President of the Republic as well as parliament’s decision to cancel parliamentary elections; it was unexpected that deadlock may lead to mounting garbage on the streets. Lebanese citizens have endured a national waste management crisis since July 2015 and it has been over 100 days since garbage has been collected and properly treated. The reason being simply that the Lebanese Cabinet cannot agree on outsourcing waste management as politicians own private sector companies bidding for government contracts. In July, group of activists took the streets chanting “You Stink” slogans blaming government inefficiency and political corruption for the crisis. The movement exhibited three precedents in the case of Lebanon. It started in local communities and suburbs suffering from garbage before moving to the center Beirut. It mobilized the largest number of citizens to take part in an independently called for protest. It linked the garbage crisis to a crisis of governance. This paper will explore how the movement mobilized scores of citizens as well as analyze the challenges that a sectarian consociational system poses on such movements. I use participant observation data, interviews and media’s discourse between July and October 2015. The paper will conclude with the argument that in a consociational system based on sectarian representation mass protests remain futile at best and impossible at worst. However, what this case shows is that smaller local protests can challenge political elite shifting the focus from center to local contentious politics.