Naturalized Citizens: Political Participation, Voting Behavior, and Impact on Elections in Lebanon (1996–2007)

Abstract

In 1994, 4 years after the end of the Civil War, Lebanon passed Presidential Decree 5427 naturalizing over 154,931 foreign residents. During the four parliamentary elections that followed, these naturalized citizens demonstrated a higher rate of voter participation than the native-born population. The current debate on the nativity gap assumes that recent naturalization should indicate lower rates of voter turnout, except when machine politics orchestrates the opposite. In Lebanon, the patron-client system seems to be responsible for this inverse nativity gap.

Keywords: Naturalization, citizenship, political participation, elections, Lebanon, Syria