Lebanon’s business community is once again promising "steps" aimed at getting the country’s feuding politicians to settle their differences quickly and responsibly, starting with the election of a president to fill the void at Baabda Palace. It will not be enough, though, to hold another "strike" that suspends the operations of participating companies for an hour, a day, or a year. That kind of empty symbolism would only signal both their impotence (by their own admission, very little business is being transacted anyway) and their infection with the same disease afflicting politicians - a pathological preference for style over substance.
Having carped from the sidelines about the carping in the political arena, key players in the Lebanese private sector have only one path left to them, and that is to put their money where their mouths are. In properly evolving countries, expanding middle classes acquire increasing influence over policy and enforce greater accountability and responsiveness on political actors. Unfortunately, Lebanon’s political class has curtailed this effect by a series of moves that have disconnected the people from their representatives, impoverished the middle class, and fueled emigration - thereby shielding the atrophied, self-interested establishment from challenges to its position.
Money is one thing Lebanon’s business community has in abundance, even if it is not very evenly distributed. Putting it to good public use, though, has never been the strong suit of this country’s tycoons. Lavishing it on university buildings is no substitute for what is really required: generous support for efforts by think tanks and other organizations to fundamentally alter the manner in which policy decisions are made. Each and every mechanism of state power in this country can be made more equitable, more effective, and more efficient if the funds are available to allow comprehensive study and carefully considered recommendations. Access the full article>>
