A simmering revolution of sorts is in the offing in Lebanon. People have taken to the streets to protest against the government’s inability to find a solution to the mounting trash collection problem, even going so far as to occupy a government ministry.
The government remains incapable of defusing the tension, or of solving the garbage crisis, which began when a landfill site near Beirut over-spilled its capacity. The state’s knee-jerk reaction to the protesters’ demands has left one dead and scores injured—raising fears that we could soon see yet another popular movement upend an Arab country.
Lebanon is a deeply divided country headed by perpetually quarrelsome politicians. Once upon a time, a Dutch political scientist called Arend Lijphart chanced upon Lebanon’s crisis politics and offered a blueprint of sorts, a plan meant to alleviate the misery of a people who couldn’t live together and couldn’t live without each other. He called this theory consociationalism.
