Abstract FR:

Lebanon as a whole. In other words, "state" which can no longer constitute a place where a social class can establish its institutions became an object of the conflicts of these socio-confessionnel groups who are the centre of the capitalism. This thesis is composed of four parts. The first part deals with the capitalism in Lebanon and its relations with the rural society, the modes and conditions of this capitalist penetration and its resulting effects. The second one deals with the characters of the industrial capitalism. It is a capitalism dominated by banks and commercial capitals. But it is also a capitalism relay, distinguished by the domination of small productive activities and a proletariat which is numercially insignificant. The final aim of these two parts is to perceive and to grasp limits of this capitalism and the origin of the capitalist rent. The third part evoques mutations and strategies of the sociofamilial groups and socio-confessionnel ones. It retraces their role in the distribution of the capitalist rent. The fourth part tries to cease the logic of the "maronit" culture. This culture, which conciliates "modernity" and "tradition", unifies the maronites. It is this same culture which helps them first to be identified to the "mount of Lebanon" and afterwards to