The College of Political Science at the University of Baghdad discussed the master’s thesis entitled “Political pluralism and the crisis of building a civil state in Lebanon after 2005” by the student “Ali Ishaq Mahdi”.
The thesis clarifies that political pluralism represents a basic pillar of building a modern civil state that seeks to achieve societal cohesion through community recognition of the reality of diversity, ideological and cultural pluralism, and the different political interests within a single pluralistic society, by giving them the right to express themselves and their privacy freely and without being subjected to coercion, since the concept of a civil state is based on the supremacy of the civil spirit that prevents individuals from attacking the rights and freedoms of each other, through the establishment of legal and political bodies outside the influence of conflicts and individual or factional forces, that can regulate public life, protect private rights, regulate authoritarian contracting affairs, and applying law to all individuals regardless of their affiliations and status. The civil state is a union of individuals living in one society subject to system of laws with the presence of judicial bodies that apply these laws by establishing the principles of justice and equality. Lebanon is one of the countries with social pluralism, and this in turn led to a pluralism of ideas, currents, political parties, and freedom of belief and expression. It also led to cultural, educational, political, and economic pluralism guaranteed by the Lebanese constitution. Here comes the question: Can Lebanese pluralism build a civil state capable of reforming various social, economic, and political conditions, making the Lebanese citizen in a high degree of self-reliance, awareness of his fate, the fate of his country, his/her various rights and duties, to eliminate the problems that the Lebanese state suffers from?.
At the end of the viva, the researcher was awarded a master’s degree with a distinction of “excellence”, wishing all our students success in their academic and practical lives.
