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Lebanon: Model or counter-model for the political regulation of cultural pluralism?
December 03, 20257:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish and French, with simultaneous translation.
The seventh conference in the series Aula Árabe Universitaria 7 in Madrid will be taking place on Wednesday, December 3, led by René Otayek, emeritus research director in Political Science at the CNRS (France). Join us or watch the event live on YouTube (in Spanish or French).
Lebanon is often presented as a kind of democratic exception, albeit a relative one, in an Arab Middle East where political authoritarianism remains the norm, despite the fleeting breath of freedom that came about after the popular uprisings in 2011. While it does display certain features of a liberal representative democracy, such as a multi-party system and elections held at more or less regular intervals, its political system is unique in that it organizes the distribution of power among the eighteen officially recognized religious communities based on their supposed demographic weight, rather than their actual weight.
For a long time, this particular feature turned Lebanon into a model of co-existence and an emblematic case of the confessional theory of power (political confessionalism). However, it must be acknowledged that the “model” as such seems to have run its course now, weakened by the tensions affecting it both internally (community polarization, political immobility, the possession of weapons by certain groups, such as Hezbollah, economic and financial crises) and externally (the Israel-Hezbollah war, the shake-ups in regional geopolitics, uncertainties in Syria, etc.).
Nevertheless, while this recent history cannot be ignored, it is only by taking into account the so-called “longer historical record” (longue durée historique) that the opposing logics existing within this “model” can be understood.
During his talk, René Otayek, emeritus research director in political science at the CNRS (France), will be talking about the historical, political and social dynamics that have shaped Lebanese confessionalism, as well as its effects on pluralism, the operation of the political system and public life in the country.
Organized with the cooperation of the Master’s degree for Intelligence Analysts and the Bachelor’s Degree in Intelligence, Security and Diplomacy, both programs at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC). Representing both programs, there will be participation and an introduction of the speaker by Susana Cuena, a researcher with the university’s Chair of Intelligence Services and Democratic Systems. Moderating the session will be Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.
René Otayek
René Otayek is a French political scientist and scholar who specializes in studying political, religious, and identity-based dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world. His work focuses on the relationship between Islam and politics, processes of religious mobilization, and state transformations in African and Arab contexts.
He has spent his career in academia as a professor and researcher at Sciences Po Bordeaux, where he also directed the Centre d’Études d’Afrique Noire (CEAN) and later the Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM) laboratory.
The author and co-author of numerous publications, he has made significant contributions to understanding religious and political pluralism in Africa, as well as the interactions between Islam, globalization and modern life.
His work has been widely cited in the field of political science and African studies, and he has collaborated as a consultant with international organizations such as the UNDP, the World Bank and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
