11. State-Sponsored Terrorism and Its Effects on Lebanese Policy and Politics

How does state-sponsored terrorism affect Lebanese policy and politics? How does it affect the stability of fragile state? Does terrorism cause such weak or fragile government to fail prematurely and/or does it enhance the probability that such government will stay in office longer than it otherwise would? According to this chapter using a duration model on a sample of 53 Lebanese governments between 1943 and 2015, state-sponsored terrorism exacerbates the likelihood of government failure for some governments but not others. The main principal finding is that right-oriented governments are able to keep their hold on power more than left-wing governments when confronted with state-sponsored terrorism. However, both types of governments will most likely collapse when faced with the pressure of state-sponsored terrorism and consequently, they fail to deliver adequate services to their citizens which leads to their erosion of public support and eventually collapse.