Sosyal Hizmetlerden Toplumsal Meşruiyete: Lübnan Hizbullahı’nın Hegemonya İnşası
From Social Services to Social Legitimacy: The Construction of Hegemony by Lebanon’s Hezbollah

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to explain Hezbollah’s hegemony-building processes within the context of the Shia community in Lebanon by combining Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony with Robert W. Cox’s neo-Gramscian approach. Using a historical-descriptive and qualitative document analysis methodology, the theoretical framework is applied to Lebanon’s historical background, the emergence of Hezbollah, and its social service networks. The findings indicate that hegemony is established not solely through coercive capacity but through a production of “consent” based on ideas, material resources, and institutional coherence. Institutionalization in sectors such as health, education, reconstruction, and interest-free microcredit has enabled Hezbollah to assume “state-like” functions where state services are inadequate, thereby enhancing its legitimacy. Ideological discourse, religious institutions, and media-educational channels reinforce this institutional structure, contributing to the organization’s hegemonic construction. While these processes gain material support from external sources and local aid networks, they also consolidate a culture of resistance. The results suggest that by aligning its institutional capacity with its ideological apparatus, Hezbollah can establish a consent-based, sustainable hegemony over the Shia community in Lebanon, and that this structure will have a lasting impact on Lebanese politics and generate regional influence.

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