The contemporary history of Lebanon is thea portrait of the effects of capitalism as a political, economic and social model on a country. Set up during the Mandatory Period, it has gradually established Lebanon as a regional leader and hub of Mediterranean trade. More ingrained in the national ideology after independence, the system will gradually run out of steam and present its first limits. The study of economics-politics is a good way to see the effects of this highly pure capitalism on a state for several decades. For this, we will use a corpus of three texts: Lebanon-Syria, intimate foreignersIntimate Strangers (A century of socio-political interactions) ofby Elizabeth Picard (2016), The historical roleHistorical Role of political economyPolitical Economy in the developmentDevelopment of modernModern Lebanon by Carolyn Gates (1989), and Economic developmentDevelopment and liberalismLiberalism in Lebanon by Charles Issawi (1964). The texts give the characteristics of the development of the Lebanese economy and the role of the political economy on the development of Lebanon.
From this corpus, we will answer the following question: To what extent does the study of the role of the political economy in the development of contemporary Lebanon highlight the challenges facing the country?
To answer this question, we will see in the first part how the new Lebanese capitalist model was born. In athe second part, we will analyze the limits of the model and the upheavals that this causes.