Qifa Nabki
Bicameralism
Mohamad Chatah (1951-2013)
I met Mohamad Chatah in late 2011. I was in Beirut for a couple of weeks, interviewing politicians and civil society members for a research project on bicameralism and consociationalism, and a mutual friend put us in touch. He had been interested in the idea of a Lebanese senate for many years, and so he … Continue reading
Lebanon: Federal or Unitary Republic?
One of my readers, EJ, made a great intervention in the comment section of the last post, in response to a remark I made about Lebanon being a unitary republic, not a federal one. As the semester is looming over my head along with several writing deadlines, I thought I’d crowd-source today’s post to the … Continue reading
Establishing a Lebanese Senate: Bicameralism and the Third Republic
My working paper for Stanford University’s Program on Arab Reform and Democracy has just been published. Those who have been following this blog for a while know that bicameralism is a longstanding interest of mine, and I’m grateful to Lina Khatib for giving me the opportunity to spend some time fleshing out my ideas in … Continue reading
Bicameralism Issues I: Would a Senate Only Serve to Entrench Confessionalism?
Due to considerations of length and format, my article about Lebanese bicameralism for The National was limited to making the simple case that establishing a senate would be better than not establishing a senate. As we’ve seen from the ensuing discussion, many different objections to this argument can and should be raised. What I’d like … Continue reading
Two Houses, Many Mansions
I’ve written an article for The Review, calling for the creation of a bicameral legislature in Lebanon. Some of you may remember a post from a while ago announcing the launch of an optimistic initiative called the Lebanese Campaign for a Senate. Well, this piece attempts to make the case in a more cogent fashion. … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…