Political Trust and Economic Turmoil in Lebanon: A Study of Respondents’ Views on Political Institutions and Establishment

Abstract: This thesis aims to examine how political participation and trust in Lebanon have been affected by the economic turmoil in Lebanon in recent years. The main aim is to study the respondents’ experience of political participation and whether political participation is different depending on demographic factors, such as age, religion, gender, and education. Furthermore, the study will examine whether the respondents trust the political elite. To do this, the method used is qualitative in the form of semi-structured interviews. The study includes even interviews with respondents from different religious groups, ages, and gender. Lebanon has a long history of political instability and political deadlocks with religion being the foundation of their political system.  With recent years' events of the 2019 revolution, Covid-19, the Beirut Port explosion, and economic collapse, political trust in the country has decreased drastically. Therefore, the thesis will use political trust as a theoretical aspect to reach the purpose. Political trust will be used to understand how the respondents trust the political establishment and institutions. The thesis shows that economic turmoil, religion, and political deadlocks affect how the respondents feel that their trust in politicians has changed between 2018 and 2023. Furthermore, the thesis also shows that high levels of corruption and political inefficiency affected the trust of the respondents.