Resources
| "Power is a necessary evil..." |
| When liberal thought reached this conclusion, it sought a form of power instituting a public authority which would fulfil its functions while, at the same time, preserving human liberty. Jean Jacques Rousseau argued that the best solution to this interplay was to insure that power emanated from the will of the people. He justified the individual's acceptance of authority as an acceptance of his or her own will, since the individual, in a certain way was a source of authority, in this way, individual liberty was not threatened. Rousseau called for an identification between the individual and the collective will, and thus for a fusion between the individual and the collectivity. This approach was controversial and Rousseau was accused of trying to justify Jacobin totalitarianism under the guise of liberalism.
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| Deconfessionalizing the Call for Deconfessionaliza |
| Both the Lebanese constitution of 1926 and the power-sharing "formula"(al-Sigha) devised in 1943 to complement the National Pact (al-Mithaq), considered the confessional system to be an interim political arrangement, limited in scope, which was nevertheless necessary. It is well known that the architects of this covenant warned against the inherent dangers of the confessional system and stressed its temporariness.
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| The Development of the Arab Idea in Lebanon |
| The aim of the Arab idea, or Arabism, was defined by the Arab National Congress which was held in Jerusalem in December 1931 as, ".... the realization of an independent Arab entity that comprises the various Arab countries..."[1] This aim was endorsed by the vast majority of groups, movements, and parties which espoused the idea of Arabism throughout the century.
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| The Stage of Liberal Arabism |
| Lebanese independence in 1943 represented, in a way, the ascendance of the Lebanese Arabists to power - for the first time since the fall of the Faysalite government in Damascus - in alliance with Lebanese nationalists. more... |
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| The Stage of Revolutionary Arabism |
| Arabism became radicalized in the early 1950s. On the regional level, the emergence of Israel was a main reason for this change: the ascendance of Nasserism and the Ba`th, as a reaction to the national humiliation of the Arabs, was both an expression of this radicalization and its catalyst. On the domestic Lebanese scene, the assassination of Riyad al-Solh, the death of Abd al-Hamid Karamé, and the gradual and progressive exclusion of the Arabists from the political process, contributed to the emergence of a more radical and militant brand of Lebanese Arabism which embarked on re-defining the Arab idea. The quest for an Arab entity remained unchanged. Yet now it was felt that the Arab League - as an association of states - did not fulfill Arab unionist aspirations. The new Arab idea opted for a single federal or unitary state. The introduction of socialism into the Arab idea and the calls for an alliance with the USSR furthered its radicalization.
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