Lebanon is a parliamentarydemocraticrepublic within the overall framework of confessionalism, a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives from certain religious communities. The constitution of Lebanon grants the people the right to change their government. However, from the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) precluded the exercise of political rights.
According to the constitution, direct elections must be held for the parliament every four years. However, after the parliamentary election in 2009[1] another election was not held until 2018. The Parliament elects a president every six years to a single term. The president is not eligible for re-election. The last presidential election was in 2016. The president and parliament choose the prime minister.
Political parties may be formed. Most are based on sectarian interests. 2008 saw a new twist to Lebanese politics when the Doha Agreement set a new trend where the opposition is allowed a veto power in the Council of Ministers and confirmed religious confessionalism in the distribution of political power.
The MaroniteCatholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[2] Since the emergence of the post-1943 state and after the destruction of the Ottoman Caliphate, national policy has been determined largely by a relatively restricted group of traditional regional and sectarian leaders.
The 1943 National Pact, an unwritten agreement that established the political foundations of modern Lebanon, allocated political power on an essentially confessional system based on the 1932 census. Seats in parliament were divided on a 6-to-5 ratio of Christians to Muslims. In 1990, the ratio changed to half and half. Positions in the government bureaucracy are allocated on a similar basis.
Efforts to alter or abolish the confessional system of allocating power have been at the centre of Lebanese politics for decades. Those religious groups most favoured by the 1943 formula sought to preserve it, while those who saw themselves at a disadvantage sought either to revise it after updating key demographic data or to abolish it entirely. Many of the provisions of the national pact were codified in the 1989 Taif Agreement, perpetuating sectarianism as a key element of Lebanese political life.
Although moderated somewhat under Ta'if, the Constitution gives the president a strong and influential position. The president has the authority to promulgate laws passed by the Parliament, form the government to issue supplementary regulations to ensure the execution of laws, and to negotiate and ratify treaties.
The Parliament is elected by adult suffrage based on a system of majority or "winner-take-all" for the various confessional groups. The majority age for voting in elections is 21.[3] There has been a recent effort to switch to proportional representation which many argue will provide a more accurate assessment of the size of political groups and allow minorities to be heard. Most deputies do not represent political parties as they are known in the West, and rarely form Western-style groups in the assembly. Political blocs are usually based on confessional and local interests or on personal/family allegiance rather than on political affinities.
The parliament traditionally has played a significant role in financial affairs, since it has the responsibility for levying taxes and passing the budget. It exercises political control over the cabinet through formal questioning of ministers on policy issues and by requesting a confidence debate.
Lebanon's judicial system is based on the Napoleonic Code. Juries are not used in trials. The Lebanese court system has three levels—courts of first instance, courts of appeal, and the court of cassation. There is a system of religious courts having jurisdiction over personal status matters within their own communities, e.g., rules on such matters as marriage, divorce, and inheritance.
Lebanese political institutions often play a secondary role to highly confessionalized personality-based politics. Powerful families play an independent role in mobilizing votes for both local and parliamentary elections. A lively panoply of domestic political parties, some even predating independence, exists. The largest parties are all religiously aligned.
Amal and Hezbollah are the main rivals for the organized Shi'a vote. The PSP (Progressive Socialist Party) is the leading Druze party. Shi'a and Druze parties command fierce loyalty to their respective leaderships. There is more factional infighting among many of the Christian parties.
Besides the traditional confessional parties above, new secular parties have emerged, amongst which Sabaa and the Party of Lebanon[4] representing a new trend in Lebanese politics towards secularism and a truly democratic society. In addition to domestic parties, there are branches of pan-Arab secular parties (Ba'ath parties, socialist and communist parties) that were active in the 1960s and throughout the period of civil war.
There are differences both between and among Muslim and Christian parties regarding the role of religion in state affairs. There is a very high degree of political activism among religious leaders across the sectarian spectrum. The interplay for position and power among the religious, political, and party leaders and groups produces a political tapestry of extraordinary complexity.
In the past, the system worked to produce a viable democracy. Events over the last decade and long-term demographic trends have upset the delicate Muslim–Christian–Druze balance and resulted in greater segregation across the social spectrum. Whether in political parties, places of residence, schools, media outlets, even workplaces, there is a lack of regular interaction across sectarian lines to facilitate the exchange of views and promote understanding. All factions have called for a reform of the political system.
Some Christians favor political and administrative decentralization of the government, with separate Muslim and Christian sectors operating within the framework of a confederation. Muslims, for the most part, prefer a unified, central government with an enhanced share of power commensurate with their larger share of the population. The reforms of the Ta'if agreement moved in this direction but have not been fully realized.
Palestinian refugees, predominantly Sunni Muslims, whose numbers are estimated at between 160,000 and 225,000, are not active on the domestic political scene.
In September 2004, the Lebanese Parliament voted 96–29 to amend the constitution to extend President Émile Lahoud's six-year term, which was about to expire, by another three years. The move was supported by Syria, which maintained a large military presence in Lebanon.
Former prime minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated in February 2005.[5] Following the withdrawal of Syrian troops in April 2005, Lebanon held parliamentary elections in four rounds, from 29 May to 19 June. The elections, the first for 33 years without the presence of Syrian military forces, were won by the Quadripartite alliance, which was part the Rafik Hariri Martyr List, a coalition of several parties and organizations newly opposed to Syrian domination of Lebanese politics.
In January 2015, the Economist Intelligence Unit released a report stating that Lebanon ranked second in the Middle East and 98th out of 167 countries worldwide on the 2014 Democracy Index. The index ranks countries according to election processes, pluralism, government functions, political participation, political cultures and fundamental freedoms.
From October 2019, there have been mass protests against the government. In August 2020, a large explosion in Beirut killed at least 204 people and caused at least US$3 billion in property damage. Following the explosion and protests against the government, the prime minister and his cabinet resigned.[6]
In May 2022, Lebanon held its first election since a painful economic crisis dragged it to the brink of becoming a failed state. Lebanon's crisis has been so severe that more than 80 percent of the population is now considered poor by the United Nations. In the election, the Iran-backed Shia Muslim Hezbollah movement and its allies lost their parliamentary majority. Hezbollah did not lose any of its seats, but its allies lost seats.[7][8][9]
Hezbollah’s ally, President Michel Aoun'sFree Patriotic Movement, was no longer the biggest Christian party after the election. A rival Christian party, led by Samir Geagea, with close ties to Saudi Arabia, the Lebanese Forces (LF), made gains. The Sunni Future Movement, led by former prime minister Saad Hariri, did not participate in the election, leaving a political vacuum for other Sunni politicians to fill.[10][11][12]
Executive branch
The Grand Serail, also known as the Government Palace, is the headquarters of the prime minister of Lebanon
The president is elected by the Parliament for a six-year term. They cannot be reelected again until six years have passed from the end of their first term.[13] The prime minister and deputy prime minister are appointed by the president in consultation with the Parliament. The president is required to be a Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni, and the speaker of the Parliament a Shi'a. See list of the ministers and their political affiliation for a list of ministers.
This confessional system is based on 1932 census data, which showed the Maronite Christians as having a substantial majority of the population. The Government of Lebanon continues to refuse to undertake a new census.
Lebanon operates under a parliamentary system, where the president has a wide range of reserve powers but is largely symbolic. The president is not accountable to Parliament, unless for treason, and is elected by the Parliament with a two-thirds majority. The president has the sole power to appoint the prime minister, and may dismiss them at any point, without input from the Chamber of Deputies,[citation needed] which can force the president to resign.[14]
The Lebanese parliament building at Place de l'Étoile in Beirut
Lebanon's national legislature is called the Assembly of Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwab in Arabic). Since the elections of 1992, the first since the reforms of the Taif Agreement of 1989 removed the built-in majority previously enjoyed by Christians and distributed the seats equally between Christians and Muslims, the Parliament has had 128 seats. The term was four years, but has recently been extended to five.
Seats in the Parliament are confessionally distributed but elected by universal suffrage. Each religious community has an allotted number of seats in the Parliament. They do not represent only their co-religionists. All candidates in a particular constituency, regardless of religious affiliation, must receive a plurality of the total vote, which includes followers of all confessions. The system was designed to minimize inter-sectarian competition and maximize cross-confessional cooperation: candidates are opposed only by co-religionists, but must seek support from outside of their own faith in order to be elected.
The opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering, a group opposed to the former pro-Syrian government, has claimed that constituency boundaries have been drawn to allow many Shi'a Muslims to be elected from Shi'a-majority constituencies, where the Hezbollah Party is strong, while allocating many Christian members to Muslim-majority constituencies, forcing Christian politicians to represent Muslim interests. Similar charges, but in reverse, were made against the Chamoun administration in the 1950s.
The following table sets out the confessional allocation of seats in the Parliament before and after the Taif Agreement.
The Supreme Council hears charges against the president and prime minister as needed.
A system of military courts that also has jurisdiction over civilians for the crimes of espionage, treason, and other crimes that are considered to be security-related.[16]
Lebanon has numerous political parties, but they play a much less significant role in Lebanese politics than they do in most parliamentary democracies. Many of the "parties" are simply lists of candidates endorsed by a prominent national or local figure. Loose coalitions, usually organized locally, are formed for electoral purposes by negotiation among clan leaders and candidates representing various religious communities. Such coalitions usually exist only for the election, and rarely form a cohesive block in the Parliament after the election. No single party has ever won more than 12.5 percent of the seats in the Parliament. No coalition of parties has won more than 35 percent.
Especially outside of the major cities, elections tend to focus more on local than national issues. It is not unusual for a party to join an electoral ticket in one constituency while aligned with a rival party – even an ideologically opposite party – in another constituency.
It is not uncommon for election times to be accompanied by outbreaks of violence, especially in polling areas where there are people of conflicting political and religious backgrounds. Sectarianism is so ingrained into Lebanese politics and society that citizens supporting their political parties will kill or be killed defending them.
International participation
Lebanon participates in the international community through both international organizations and enacting international policy practices, such as the Sustainable development goals and the Paris Agreement.
Lebanon adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. It presented its first Voluntary National Review VNR in 2018 at the High Level Political Forum in New York. A national committee chaired by the Lebanese Prime Minister is leading the work on the SDGs in the country.[17] In 2019, Lebanon's overall performance in the SDG Index ranked 6th out of 21 countries in the Arab region.[18]
Multi-stakeholder forums were held by different UN agencies including the UN Global Compact Network in Lebanon during the late 2010s for the advancement of Global Goals and their Impact on Businesses in Lebanon. The latest two were held in October 2018 and October 2019 under the title of connecting the global goals to Local Businesses.[19]
The history of Lebanon covers the history of the modern Republic of Lebanon and the earlier emergence of Greater Lebanon under the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, as well as the previous history of the region, covered by the modern state.
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
The Taif Agreement, officially known as the National Reconciliation Accord, was reached to provide "the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon". Negotiated in Taif, Saudi Arabia, it was designed to end the 15 year-long Lebanese Civil War, and reassert Lebanese government authority in southern Lebanon, which was controlled at the time by the Christian-separatist South Lebanon Army under the occupational hegemony of Israel. Though the agreement set a time frame for withdrawal of Syrian military forces from Lebanon, stipulating that the Syrian occupation end within two years, Syria did not withdraw its forces from the country until 2005. It was signed on 22 October 1989 and ratified by the Lebanese parliament on 5 November, 1989.
Michel Naim Aoun is a Lebanese politician and former general who served as the 13th President of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 to 30 October 2022.
Elections in Lebanon are allotted to occur every four years. Every citizen is allowed to vote, but the positions are constitutionally allocated by religious affiliation. Lebanon was ranked second most electoral democracy in the Middle East according to V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023 with a score of 0.157 out of 1. Those who are above 21 and are non active military personal are permitted to vote.
The National Pact is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multiconfessional state following negotiations between the Shia, Sunni, and Maronite and Druze leaderships. Erected in the summer of 1943, the National Pact was formed by the then-president Bechara El Khoury and the prime minister Riad Al Solh. Mainly centered around the interests of political elites, the Maronite elite served as a voice for the Christian population of Lebanon while the Sunni elite represented the voice of the Muslim population. The pact also established Lebanon's independence from France.
The Lebanese Parliament is the national parliament of the Republic of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year term in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's diverse Christian and Muslim denominations but with half of the seats reserved for Christians and half for Muslims per Constitutional Article 24. Lebanon has universal adult suffrage. The parliament's major functions are to elect the President of the republic, to approve the government, and to approve laws and expenditure.
The Free Patriotic Movement is a Lebanese political party. Founded by Michel Aoun in 1994, the party is currently led by Aoun's son-in-law Gebran Bassil since 2015.
The presidentof the Lebanese Republic is the head of state of Lebanon. The president is elected by the parliament for a term of six years, which cannot be renewed immediately because they can only be renewed non-consecutively. By convention, the president is always a Maronite Christian who fulfills the same requirements as a candidate for the house of representatives, as per article 49 of the Lebanese constitution.
Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, recognizing 18 religious sects. The recognized religions are Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Lebanon–Syria relations were officially established in October 2008 when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued a decree to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time since both countries gained independence from France in 1943 (Lebanon) and 1946 (Syria). Lebanon had traditionally been seen by Syria as part of Greater Syria. Following World War I, the League of Nations Mandate partitioned Ottoman Syria under French control, eventually leading to the creation of nation-states Lebanon and Syria.
According to Article 9 of the Lebanese Constitution, all religions and creeds are to be protected and the exercise of freedom of religion is to be guaranteed providing that the public order is not disturbed. The Constitution declares equality of rights and duties for all citizens without discrimination or preference. Nevertheless, power is distributed among different religious and sectarian groups. The position of president is reserved for a Maronite Christian; the role of Presidency of Parliament for a Shiite Muslim; and the role of Prime Minister for a Sunni Muslim. The government has generally respected these rights; however, the National Pact agreement in 1943 restricted the constitutional provision for apportioning political offices according to religious affiliation. There have been periodic reports of tension between religious groups, attributable to competition for political power, and citizens continue to struggle with the legacy of the civil war that was fought along sectarian lines. Despite sectarian tensions caused by the competition for political power, the Lebanese continue to coexist.
Lebanese nationalism is a nationalist ideology which considers the Lebanese people as a separate nation independent from the Arab world and strives to maintain Lebanon as an independent nation-state. The ideology may consider the Lebanese people to be direct descendants of the Phoenicians, a concept associated with Phoenicianism.
The 2011 Lebanese protests, also known as the Intifada of Dignity or Uprising of Dignity were seen as influenced by the Arab Spring. The main protests focused on calls for political reform especially against confessionalism in Lebanon. The protests initiated in early 2011, and dimmed by the end of the year. In another aspect of the Arab Spring, Lebanese pro and anti-Assad factions descended into sectarian violence, which culminated in May–June 2012.
Lebanese society is very modern and similar to certain cultures of Southern Europe as the country is "linked ideologically and culturally to Europe through France, and its uniquely diverse religious composition [create] a rare environment that [is] at once Arab and European". It is often considered as Europe's gateway to Western Asia as well as Asia's gateway to the Western World.
General elections were held in Lebanon on 6 May 2018. Although originally scheduled for 2013, the election was postponed three times in 2013, 2014 and 2017 for various reasons, including the security situation, the failure of the Parliament to elect a new President, and the technical requirements of holding an election. A new electoral law adopted in 2017 provides a proportional representation system for the first time.
The Second Republic is Lebanon's current republican system of government. It was established on 22 October 1989 by Lebanese political leaders and business people under the Taif Agreement.
Sectarianism in Lebanon refers to the formal and informal organization of Lebanese politics and society along religious lines. It has been formalized and legalized within state and non-state institutions and is inscribed in its constitution. Lebanon recognizes 18 different sects: 67.6% of the population is Muslim, 32.4% is Christian, the majority being Maronites Catholics and Greek Orthodox, while 4.52% is Druze. The foundations of sectarianism in Lebanon date back to the mid-19th century during Ottoman rule. It was subsequently reinforced with the creation of the Republic of Lebanon in 1920 and its 1926 constitution, and in the National Pact of 1943. In 1990, with the Taif Agreement, the constitution was revised but did not structurally change aspects relating to political sectarianism. The dynamic nature of sectarianism in Lebanon has prompted some historians and authors to refer to it as "the sectarian state par excellence" because it is a mixture of religious communities and their myriad sub-divisions, with a constitutional and political order to match.
The 2022–2024 Lebanese presidential election is an ongoing indirect election to elect the president of Lebanon following the expiration of term-limited incumbent Michel Aoun's mandate on 31 October 2022. The outgoing president has served since 31 October 2016, following the end of the 2-year presidential crisis.
↑ Deeb, Marius (2013). Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah: The Unholy Alliance and Its War on Lebanon. Hoover Press. ISBN9780817916664. the Maronites and the Druze, who founded Lebanon in the early eighteenth century.
↑ Luomi, M.; Fuller, G.; Dahan, L.; Lisboa Båsund, K.; de la Mothe Karoubi, E.; Lafortune, G. (2019). Arab Region SDG Index and Dashboards Report 2019. SDG Centre of Excellence for the Arab Region/Emirates Diplomatic Academy and Sustainable Development Solutions Network. p.5.
↑ Global Compact Network Lebanon (GCNL) (2015). "Our Mission".
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