Officially, Hezbollah is simply a political organization,
one of many in Lebanon. Most of its base of power is among the Shi'a Muslims of that
country.
Unofficially, however, Hezbollah has a lot of
power. They are in some ways like the government of some local areas where they are
powerful. In such places, they serve many of the functions of government (like
providing social services).
In addition, they have a very
strong paramilitary wing. Many people believe that Hezbollah's military wing is strong
enough that the actual government of Lebanon is afraid to take them on and, for example,
try to disarm them. Because of this, Hezbollah is said to play a much larger role in
Lebanon's politics than its official position would make you think that it
does.
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