Kamal Jumblatt was born in 1917 in Mukhtara, in the Chouf area of Lebanon. Jumblatt family were traditional leaders of the Lebanese Druze community. His father, the powerful Druze chieftain Fouad Joumblatt, director of the Chouf District, was assassinated on August 6, 1931.

In 1926, the young Kamal Jumblatt joined the Lazarus Fathers Institute in Aintoura, where he completed his elementary studies in 1928. He achieved his high school diploma, having studied French, Arabic, science and literature, in 1936, and a philosophy diploma in 1937.

Jumblatt then pursued higher studies in France, where he joined the Faculty of Arts at the Sorbonne University and achieved a degree in Psychology & Civil Education, and another one in Sociology. He returned to Lebanon in 1939, after the outbreak of World War II and continued his studies at St Joseph University where he obtained a law degree in 1945.

On May 1, 1948, he married May Arslan, daughter of Prince Shakib Arslan (the Arslans being the other prominent Lebanese Druze family). Their only son, Walid Jumblatt, was born on August 7, 1949. Kamal Jumblatt practiced law for only one year after which he under took his political career in 1943, after the death of his relative Hikmat Joumblatt. In September, 1943, Kamal Jumblatt was elected to the National Assembly for the first time, as a deputy of Mount Lebanon. He joined the opposition to the ruling Constitutional Bloc Party, headed by the then-President, Bechara El Khoury. In 1946, he was appointed Minister of Economy, Agriculture & Social Affairs. In 1947, he was elected for the second time as deputy; however, he resigned from the government, protesting voter fraud in the parliamentary elections. He protested against what he called the oppression and corruption of Bechara El Khoury, and was a main founder of the National Socialist Front, a movement which succeeded in 1952 in ousting President Khoury and electing Kamil Chamoun as the new president.

On March 17, 1949, Kamal Jumblatt officially founded the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and declared its constitution on May 1, 1949. The PSP was a socialist party supporting secularism and officially opposing the sectarian character of Lebanese politics. In practice, it has been led and largely supported since its foundation by members of the Druze community in general, and the Jumblatt clan in particular. In the name of the PSP, Jumblatt called the first convention of the Arab Socialist Parties was held in Beirut in May 1951. The same year, he was reelected for the third time as Deputy of Mount Lebanon.

In 1958, Kamal Jumblatt reminding the Maronites of their guarantees, called for a democratic system in Lebanon; he was oppressed. It was an election year for members of the parliament, the government cheated by replacing all ballot boxes with specialty prepared ones, and declared Jumblatt and ail leaders supporting his ideas as losers. Jumblatt requested an investigation; instead the government sent the police to arrest him. Jumblatt responded by declaring a revolution against the unjust system, starting with 65 armed men, in less than 6 months 70% of the Lebanese people were on his side, and he had control over two thirds of- Lebanon. Lebanese President Chamoun called upon the United States for help. The US Marines were sent to Lebanon to eight communism. When they arrived in Lebanon, the Marines realized that there were no communists, they helped in conducting a new election, Jumblatt and the other leaders regained their seats. A new Maronite president, Fouad Chehab, who was the chief of staff of the Lebanese army was elected, promised new rules whereby all Lebanese will be equal.

Beginning in the mid-1960s his allies were openly the radicals, including the Communists, Nasserites, and Arab nationalist groups. The new alliance, labeled the Front of Progressive parties and National Forces, evolved into the National Movement after the mid-1970s. In the same vein, Jumblatt championed the Palestine cause for a national homeland and went into open alliance with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) against the government after 1967. As minister of interior in 1970 he licensed the Communist party of Lebanon and the Syrian Nationalist Social party, and in 1972 he accepted the general secretariat of the multi-national Front for the Support of the Palestine Resistance. For the qualitative change in his political conduct Jumblatt earned the Lenin Peace Prize and the Order of Lenin from the Soviet government. When war broke out in Lebanon in 1975 Jumblatt warned that "revolution is knocking at the door" and that it would not relent until the "decadent system is gone forever." In its place he proposed an Interim Program for Democratic Reform designed by the National Movement and calling for sweeping changes, including the abolishment of political sectarianism, restructuring the army, reinforcing democratic representation and augmenting the influence of parliament within the structure of power, and introducing "socio-economic democracy." This revolutionary course and his alliance with the radicals and the PLO, as well as his rejection of a Syrian-sponsored program for constitutional reform in February 1976, put him on a collision course with Damascus which was catastrophic for his career. Succumbing to Syrian pressure, the PLO grudgingly moved away from a badly defeated Jumblatt.

He supported the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel for ideological reasons, but also to garner support from the Palestinian fedayeen based in Lebanon’s refugee camps. The presence in Lebanon of large numbers of Palestinian refugees was resented by most Christians, but Jumblatt strived to build a hard core of opposition around the Arab nationalist slogans of the Palestinian movement. Demanding a new Lebanese order based on secularism, socialism, Arabism and an abolition of the sectarian system, Jumblat began gathering disenchanted Sunnis, Shi’a and leftist Christians into an embryonic national opposition movement.

In April 1975, a series of tit-for-tat killings culminating in a Phalangist massacre of Palestinian guerillas, prompted full-blown fighting in Beirut. In August 1975, Jumblatt declared a program for reform of the Lebanese political system, and the LNM openly challenged the government’s legitimacy. In October a new round of fighting broke out, and quickly spread throughout the country: the Lebanese Civil War had begun.

During the period of 1975-1976 Jumblatt acted as the main leader of the Lebanese opposition in the war, and with the aid of the PLO the LNM rapidly gained control over nearly 70% of Lebanon. This prompted Syrian intervention, since the Assad regime feared a collapse of the Christian-dominated order. Some 40,000 Syrian soldiers invaded Lebanon in 1976 and quickly smashed the LNM’s favorable position; a truce was declared and the fighting subsided. The conflict remained unsolved, however, and during 1977, violence again began to increase.

On March 16, 1977, Kamal Jumblat was assassinated. Prime suspects include the pro-Syrian faction of the Lebanese Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), in collaboration with the Ba’ath Party. In 2005, his son Walid Jumblatt, who immediately succeeded him as the main Druze leader of Lebanon and as head of the PSP, accused Syrian secret service agents of responsibility for his father’s murder.