How Public Debt Explains Lebanon’s Protests
Heavily reliant on borrowing, governments in the Middle East and North Africa are causing pain and outrage among their citizens.
Debt’s the problem.
Photographer: Anwar Amro/AFP
The street demonstrations wracking Lebanon come on the heels of socioeconomic protests in several other Middle Eastern countries this year, most notably in Iraq and Egypt. The protests have diverse national political and economic contexts, but the protesters have many grievances in common: rampant corruption, the deterioration of public services, as well as the heightened pain inflicted by government austerity programs and higher indirect taxes.
The countries where the protests have broken out all have political and economic elites of contested legitimacy, which have conspicuously failed to deliver development to a majority of citizens. This is especially true for young women and men, who find themselves economically excluded and politically disenfranchised.