Lebanese Youth Express Distrust of Municipalities
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), in cooperation with its local partner, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS), conducted a focus group study to analyse and evaluate young people’s perception of local government work.
Lebanese Youth Express Distrust of Municipalities
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), in cooperation with its local partner, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS), conducted a focus group study to analyse and evaluate young people’s perception of local government work.
Five focus groups were conducted in Tyre, Haret Hreik, Metn (Khinshara and Bteghrine), Baakleen, and Tripoli in April 2010 involving mixed gender youth groups, with participants aged 18-25.
The study focused on three issues:
Results in brief:
Focus group participants expressed their distrust of municipalities, describing them as corrupt, politicised, partisan, and inefficient. Municipalities were perceived to be part of the grand architecture of the Lebanese political system.
Across focus groups, participants expressed confused perceptions about municipal work, failing to draw a distinction between the role of central government and that of the municipality. The municipality at times was expected to provide electricity, water and other services which clearly fall under the responsibility of the state. Participants seemed to link municipal work to the improvement of their immediate environment especially roads and traffic lights.
A general atmosphere of powerlessness, scepticism, and lack of ownership prevailed during the focus groups. Participants expressed a negative impression of municipal performance in Lebanon with a lack of belief in their ability to change the status quo. The young people were clearly of the view that municipal authorities do not communicate with them or listen to their needs. “If we go to the municipality, they would not take it into consideration. It requires someone ‘bigger’ than us, somebody who has a hand in the state and lots of connections,” one participant said.
Leadership and political reform was seen as a prerequisite for youth engagement at the municipal level. Although feeling disempowered, the majority of focus group participants called for electoral law reform, a proportional representation system, ad the lowering of the voting age to 18.
Participants could not identify specific steps that would push them to get engaged in municipal politics. They had a hard time identifying procedures that would help them get engaged.
Research suggested that there is no connection between religion and youth participation; political affiliation seemed to be rather more influential. The issue of sectarianism did not come up in the five focus groups. Even when the moderator asked questions regarding the relation between religion and youth participation, participants discounted the question.
