Belief-System and Ideology Formation in the Lebanese Katâ'ib Party

John P. Entelis

doi:10.1017/S0020743800027410

Belief-System and Ideology Formation in the Lebanese Katâ'ib Party

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009

John P. Entelis

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John P. Entelis: Affiliation:
Fordham University, Bronx, New York

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One of the primary reasons for Lebanon's political viability over nearly three decades of independence in a volatile political environment has been the relative success of well-organized, intensely nationalistic Lebanese groups in mobilizing effective support for the system. The most significant such organization is the Lebanese Katâ'ib Party (LKP), which has exceeded others in its membership support, structural stability, ideological commitment, and coercive powers to influence government policy.

Type: Articles
Information: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1973 , pp. 148 - 162

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800027410 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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^{page 149 note 1} Cf. P. E. Converse, who defines belief-system as a ‘configuration of ideas and attitudes in which the elements are bound together by some form of constraint or functional interdependence’ (Converse, Philip E., ‘The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics’, in Ideology and Discontent, ed. Apter, David E. (New York: The Free Press, 1964), p. 207).Google ScholarBarnes, S. also introduces the notion of constraint in his definition of belief-system (‘a set of political attitudes held by an individual, whether exhibiting constraint or not’);Google Scholar see Barnes, Samuel, ‘Political Ideology and Political Behaviour’, in Ideology, Politics, and Political Theory, ed. Cox, Richard H. (Belmont, California:Wadsworth Publishing Co., Inc., 1969), p. 349.Google ScholarCf. Sartori, Giovanni, ‘Politics, Ideology, and Belief Systems’, American Political Science Review, vol. 63 (06 1969), pp. 398–411.CrossRef Google Scholar See also Verba, Sidney, ‘Comparative Political Culture’, in Political Culture and Political Development, ed. Pye, Lucian W. and Verba, Sidney (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969), n. 2, p. 516.Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 2} Political community may be defined as a ‘we-feeling among a group of people, not that they are just a group but that they are a political entity that works together and will likely share a common political fate and destiny’ (Easton, David, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley, 1965), p. 332).Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 3} Safran, Nadav, Egypt in Search of Political Community: An Analysis of the Intellectual and Political Evolution of Egypt 1804–1952 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 4} Easton, Systems Analysis, p. 290.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 1} According to Apter ideology helps to perform two main functions: (I) a social function which binds the community and (2) an individual function which organizes ‘the role personalities of the maturing individual’. Both combine to legitimize authority. (David E. Apter, ‘Introduction’, in Ideology and Discontent, ed. by Apter, p. 18.)Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 2} Easton, Systems Analysis, p. 336.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 3} Mîthâq al-Katâ'ib al-Watanî (The Katâ'ib National Charter) (Beirut: n.p., n.d.), p. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 4} al-Ashqar, Jamîl Jabr, al-Haraka al-Katâ'ibiya: Mafhûm ‘aqîdatihâ, târîkhihâ, ahdâfihâ (the Katâ'ib movement: its doctrine, history, and objectives understood) (Beirut: Matba'at al-'Amâl, 1949), p. 115.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 5} Literally ‘Sûfim or mystic way of life’, but used here more broadly to mean ‘spirituality’ or ‘religiosity’.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 6} Ashqar, Haraka, p. 116.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 7} Ibid.

^{page 151 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 151 note 2} Interview with Antoine Najm, Beirut, Lebanon, 11 March 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 151 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 151 note 4} Minhâj al-'Amàl al-Katâ'ibî (the Katâ'ib action program) (Beirut, 1963), p. 19.Google Scholar

^{page 151 note 5} Ibid. See also al-'Amal (Beirut), I March 1969. Cf. Pierre Jumayyil's statements in al-Nahâr (Beirut), 4 April 1968.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 1} Minhâj, p. 20.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 2} Interview with Antoine Najm, Beirut, Lebanon, 11 March 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 3} Yamak, Labib Zuwiyya, The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: An Ideological Analysis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966), p. 102.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 4} Al-'Amal, 27 June 1956.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 5} Naji, Amin (Antoine Najm), Falsafat al-'Aqîda al-Katâ'ibiya (the philosophy of the Katâ'ib doctrine) (Beirut, 1966), p. 69.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 6} Ibid. p. 22.

^{page 153 note 1} Ibid. pp. 73–5.

^{page 153 note 2} Ibid. pp. 129–31.

^{page 153 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 153 note 4} Ibid. Cf. Pierre Jumayyil's paraphrasing of Najm in al-'Amal, 15 August 1964, and Bayân al-Shaykh Pierre al-Jumayyil (the statement of Shaykh Pierre Jumayyil) (Shatûra: Tenth Party Congress, 29 September 1967), p. 12.

^{page 153 note 5} Naji, Falsafa, p. 132.Google Scholar

^{page 154 note 1} Ibid. pp. 79–93.

^{page 154 note 2} Interview with Antoine Najm, Beirut, Lebanon, 11 March 1969. It is interesting to compare Maurice Jumayyil's interpretation of the Katâ'ib's existential character which he defines in terms of a ‘bio-political current’. According to him, ‘the Katâ'ib is essentially a stream of life and spontaneous action. It is a power generator, and acts as a catalyst according to the needs of the moment…. [It is] an ethic, a style of life which ensures maximum liberty and dignity to the human being, and this thanks to its basic foundations, organization, order, and discipline;…. [It is] an exhaustive culture and civilization which subjects all ideologies and doctrines to the service of man instead of subjecting man to doctrines and ideologies; it is in this that it is a culture and a civilization;…. [It is] a great servant of all which is human.’ Within this framework the objectives of the LKP are the ‘triumph over the past and its sequels, overcoming the status quo and those it favors, and liberating the future and its promises’. Interview with Maurice Jumayyil, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 1969, and Maurice Jumayyil, ‘Intervention de Maître Maurice Gemayel’ (Beirut, 1966), p. 4 (mimeographed).Google Scholar

^{page 155 note 1} Almond, Gabriel A. and Powell, G. Bingham, Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966), pp. 125–6.Google Scholar

^{page 155 note 2} Bell, Daniel, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1960), p. 372.Google Scholar

^{page 156 note 1} Apter, David E., The Politics of Modernization (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1965), p. 340.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 1} Al-'Amal, 25 April 1943. See also ‘Un patrimoine à défendre: la nation libanaise’, Connaissance des Kataeb (Beirut: Imprimerie Jeanne d'Arc, 1948), p. 6;Google ScholarTabbarah, Bahige B., ‘Les forces politiques actuelles au Liban’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Université de Grenoble, 28 04 1954), p. 232;Google Scholar‘Evolution de la nation libanaise’, Action (April 1960), p. 943.Google ScholarCf. Dahdah, Najib, Evolution historique du Liban (Beirut:Librairie du Liban, 1968), p. 77.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 2} Ashqar, while stating that Lebanon ‘is a fact of life, supported by historical proof, [and] a product of an ancient past’, traces Lebanon's borders only to the 1860s; that is, to the period of European intervention in the aftermath of the Druze-Maronite massacres. (Ashqar, Haraka, p. 21.)Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 3} Connaissance des Kataeb, p. 6.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 4} Action (December 1963), p. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 5} Action (April 1960), p. 945. Cf. Dahdah, Evolution historique, pp. 52–90. According to Najm ‘Lebanon's nationalism is not Phoenician but is a fruit of that heritage; its own personality has developed throughout its history’. Interview with Antoine Najm, Beirut, Lebanon, 18 February 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 6} Action (December 1963), p. 6.Google Scholar

^{page 158 note 1} Al-Kataeb al-Lubnania: Political Democratic Party (Beirut, 1958), p. 22.Google Scholar Also reproduced in Karpat, Kemal H. (ed.), Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968), pp. 108 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 158 note 2} ‘Le Libanisme, une doctrine’, Connaissance des Kataeb, pp. 61–2.Google Scholar

^{page 158 note 3} Al-Kataeb al-Lubnania, p. 28.Google Scholar

^{page 158 note 4} Al-'Amal, 21 November 1942.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 1} Elias Rababi is much more direct: ‘Throughout its history the Kata'ib's fundamental raison d'être has remained unaltered: defending Lebanon's integrity, independence, and sovereignty against pan-Arabist aspirations.’ Interview with Elias Rababi, Beirut, Lebanon, 13 March 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 2} ‘Evolution de la nation libanaise’, p. 945.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 3} Daily Star (Beirut), 2 March 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 4} Al-'Amal, 7 March 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 5} Jumayyil, Bayân, 1967, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 6} ‘Face à la question arabe’, Connaissance des Kataeb, p. 113.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 1} Zuwiyya Yamak, SSNP, p. 84.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 2} Jumayyil, Bayân, 1967, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 160 note 4} Cf. Clovis Maksoud, an ardent Arab nationalist, who writes that although ‘the Arab is not a term identical with a Muslim…. the secularity of the Arab affirms the positive impact of Islam on his formation. It is not his total involvement, but Islam is part of the Arab's heritage, culture, history and civilization whether the Arab is a Muslim or not.’ Maksoud, Clovis, ‘Lebanon and Arab Nationalism’, in Politics in Lebanon, ed. by Binder, Leonard (New York: John Wiley, 1966), pp. 247–8.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 5} Jumayyil, Bayân, 1967, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 6} Al-'Amal, 15 July 1943.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 7} Al-Kataeb al-Lubnania, p. 32.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 8} See, for example, Erikson, Erik, Young Man Luther (New York: W. W. Norton Library, paperback, 1962).Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 9} This type of historical engineering and myth-making is a common characteristic of nationalist ideologies. This process is well described by von Grunebaum. See von Grunebaum, Gustave E., Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity (Los Angeles: University of California Press, paperback, 1962).Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 1} Interview with Joseph Shadir, Beirut, Lebanon, 18 April 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 2} Al-'Amal, 7 March 1969.Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 161 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 162 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 162 note 2} Laursen, Richard Hans, ‘The Katâ'ib: A Comprehensive Study of a Lebanese Political Party’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, American University of Beirut, 1951), p. 76.Google Scholar

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