Students Taking to the Streets: Mobilizing for a Secular Lebanon

The document examines the rise of the AUB Secular Club (ASC) as a case study for the broader secular student movement in Lebanon. It argues that while partisan clubs rely on material resources and clientelist patronage from national political parties, the ASC has leveraged a potent anti-establishment frame and immaterial resources—such as human and cultural capital—to win student council seats. The study highlights the contrast between the 'vertical' networks of sectarian loyalty and the 'horizontal' mobilization of the secular movement, suggesting that university campuses serve as laboratories for nonsectarian political representation in a deeply divided society.

• The AUB Secular Club (ASC) has significantly challenged the dominance of sectarian political parties in student council elections since 2012, winning between 15-33% of all seats in the University Student Faculty Committee (USFC) between 2012 and 2018.
• Partisan student clubs maintain power through a reciprocal relationship with national political parties' youth wings, which provide extensive material funding, training, and strategic coordination.
• Sectarian clubs employ clientelist 'vote-buying' tactics, such as providing access to banks of previous exams ('previouses'), tutoring sessions, and transportation to campus on election day in exchange for votes.
• The ASC compensates for its lack of material resources by utilizing the 'makana' system—a canvassing method involving 'operators' who track and influence potential voters using Excel sheets and peer networks.
• The ASC's political platform is framed as a 'prognosis' for a secular state, incorporating values of social justice, feminism, environmentalism, and the rights of marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community and refugees.
• The secular student movement is coordinated across multiple institutions through the Mada Network, which includes clubs at the American University of Beirut, the University of Saint Joseph, and Notre Dame University.
• The ASC's success is partly attributed to the mobilization of 'moral resources,' capitalizing on widespread student resentment and distrust toward the corrupt sectarian political establishment.
• There is a geographic divide in student political popularity at AUB; the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is a stronghold for the Secular Club, while the 'lower campus' (Business and Engineering) is viewed as a 'fortress' for sectarian clubs.

APA

Anstorp, H. B. (2020). Students Taking to the Streets: Mobilizing for a Secular Lebanon. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/cde8419e-d27f-45a6-aaa9-0f026b6ff8f5/MA_thesis_Anstorp_2020.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Anstorp, Henrik Buljo. Students Taking to the Streets: Mobilizing for a Secular Lebanon. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2020. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/cde8419e-d27f-45a6-aaa9-0f026b6ff8f5/MA_thesis_Anstorp_2020.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Anstorp |first1=Henrik Buljo |title=Students Taking to the Streets: Mobilizing for a Secular Lebanon |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=2020 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/cde8419e-d27f-45a6-aaa9-0f026b6ff8f5/MA_thesis_Anstorp_2020.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{anstorp2020students, author = {Anstorp, Henrik Buljo}, title = {{Students Taking to the Streets: Mobilizing for a Secular Lebanon}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2020}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/cde8419e-d27f-45a6-aaa9-0f026b6ff8f5/MA_thesis_Anstorp_2020.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }