About Elections 2000

Lebanese Legislative Elections of Summer 2000
Workshop, December, 2000 Beirut-Lebanon

Introduction

In line of its interests in studying the various democratic processes that help enhance pubic participation and political representation, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies conducted a study on the legislative elections of Fall 2000. The Center has already organized and published a series of electoral studies on legislative elections of the years 1992 and 1996, on local elections of 1997 as well as studies on electoral systems. This study added a new record to this series of electoral studies.

Importance of the Study

Studying the electoral process helps understand and assess the process of democratic change in Lebanon in terms of public participation and public perception of the role of elections in representing different political and social forces and recruiting the political elite. It also helps measure or tests the openness of the political system toward new political forces. It finally sheds the light on the social and political transformations that took place in the period of 1996 - 2000.

Methodology

The project involved specialized studies conducted as a collective work by a group of researchers using different methods such as analysis, documentation, interviews, field research. The papers were divided along two types; regional studies of the electoral process which highlighted the different aspects of the electoral process in a specific electoral district; and sector studies [or topical studies] which focused on a specific aspect of the electoral process analyzing it across the different electoral districts or a specific region.

Regional studies highlighted the following aspects:
· Historical circumstances underlying the development of the dominant political forces in the electoral region under study
· Electoral campaigns and electoral machines running the campaigns
· Role of media and electoral advertisement
· Social divisions created by electoral competition
· Role of the political authority in the electoral process in terms of intervention or support of some candidates
· The rate of participation and boycotting as compared with 1992 and 1996 elections.
· Election results and their implications on the map of the political forces as compared with the elections of 1996.
Yet, the large number of the electoral districts in the light of the new election law made it difficult to study the above-mentioned topics in each of the electoral divisions. Instead, case studies were chosen taking into consideration the importance of the political and confessional configurations in the chosen electoral district.

The topical studies covered the following aspects:
· Political, economic and social factors affecting electoral behavior
· Influence of culture, social standards and values in the electoral process
· Candidates' anthropological background: case studies
· Role of pressure groups and their influence on the electoral process
· Comparative analytical studies of campaigns with emphasis on the ideological and semiotic backgrounds and the access to media and financial resources.
· The dialectical relation of mutual influence between youth and the electoral process and the role of elections in social change.
· The role of the election law in reproducing the traditional political elite.

Introductory meetings were held among the participating researchers in the aim of clarifying the objective of the study and coordinating the approaches and methods to be used.

Two workshops were also organized. The first one aimed at elaborating the theoretical and methodological approaches while the second one aimed at discussing the draft papers.

Publication: Lebanese Legislative Elections of Summer 2000- The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies Publishing, October 2002

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