Cite: Haddad, What Leads Some Lebanese Shiis to Support Hizballah?

Haddad, Simon. “What Leads Some Lebanese Shiis to Support Hizballah?” Comparative Strategy 32.1 (2013): 71-87.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/ucst/2013/00000032/00000001/art00005

 

Abstract

In this article, I report the results of a survey of 176 Lebanese Shiis living in metropolitan Beirut administered during the months of December 2010 and January 2011. The data reveal that adherence to Hizballah is associated with personal piety, political alienation, and the frequency of service provision by the party. These findings suggest that those Shii respondents endorse the organization not only for its military capabilities but also as a political party largely for its social services or religious piety, or as a vehicle for change, or for some combination of these and other factors. Therefore, the legitimacy that this popular support provides compounds the challenges of limiting Hizballah’s influence by consensus. Accordingly, removing Hizballah from Lebanon would require the removal of its civilian constituency.