GOVERNMENT
Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy in which the people constitutionally have the right to change their government. However, from the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, civil war precluded the effective exercise of political rights. According to the constitution, direct elections must be held for the parliament every 4 years. Parliament, in turn, is tasked to elect a new president every 6 years. A presidential election scheduled for the autumn of 2004 was pre-empted by a parliamentary vote to extend the sitting President's term in office by 3 years. The president and parliament choose the prime minister. Political parties may be formed. However, the political parties that do exist are weak and mostly based on sectarian interests.
Since
the emergence of the post-1943 state, 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. Until 1990, seats in parliament
were divided on a 6-to-5 ratio of Christians to Muslims (with
Druze counted as Muslims). With the Ta'if Agreement, the ratio
changed to half and half. Positions in the government bureaucracy
are allocated on a similar basis. Indeed, gaining political office
is virtually impossible without the firm backing of a particular
religious or confessional group. The pact also allocated public
offices along religious lines, with the top three positions in
the ruling "troika" distributed as follows:
The presidency
is reserved for a Maronite Christian;
The Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim, and
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, a Shi'a Muslim.
Efforts to alter or abolish the confessional system of allocating
power have been at the center of Lebanese politics for decades.
Those religious groups most favored 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. Nonetheless, many of the provisions
of the national pact were codified in the 1989 Ta'if Agreement,
perpetuating sectarianism as a key element of Lebanese political
life.
Although
moderated somewhat under Ta'if, constitutionally, the president
has a strong and influential position. The president has the authority
to promulgate laws passed by the Chamber of Deputies, to issue
supplementary regulations to ensure the execution of laws, and
to negotiate and ratify treaties.
The Chamber of Deputies is elected by adult suffrage (majority age is 21) based on a system of proportional representation for the various confessional groups. Political blocs are usually based on confessional and local interests or on personal/family allegiance rather than on left/right policy orientations.
The parliament
traditionally has played a significant role in financial affairs,
since it has the responsibility for levying taxes and passing
the budget. It also 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 also 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.
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Lebanese political institutions often play a secondary role to highly
confessionalized personality-based politics. Powerful families also still play
an independent role in mobilizing votes for both local and parliamentary
elections. Nonetheless, a lively panoply of domestic political parties, some
even predating independence, still exists. The largest are all confessional
based. The Phalange, National Bloc, National Liberal Party, Lebanese Forces and
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) are overwhelmingly Christian parties. Amal and
Hezbollah are the main rivals for the organized Shi'a vote, and the PSP
(Progressive Socialist Party) is the leading Druze party. In the recent
parliamentary elections, an anti-Syrian opposition coalition ("March 14") emerged, led by Sa'ad Hariri's predominantly Sunni Future Movement and allied with Druze leader Jumblatt, the Qornet Shehwan coalition of center-right Christian politicians, Samir Geagea's mostly Maronite Lebanese Forces, and Elias Attallah's Democratic Left secular movement. In addition to domestic parties, there are branches of pan-Arab secular parties (Ba'ath, 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. The civil war resulted in greater segregation across the confessional 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.
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 trajectory of the Ta'if Agreement points towards a non-confessional system, but there has been no real movement in this direction in the decade and a half since Ta'if.
Palestinian refugees, predominantly Sunni Muslims, who numbered 405,525 in 2006 according to UNWRA, are not active on the domestic political scene. Nonetheless, they constitute an important minority whose naturalization/settlement in Lebanon is vigorously opposed by most Lebanese, who see them as a threat to Lebanon's delicate confessional balance. During 2002, parliament enacted legislation banning Palestinians from owning property in Lebanon. The Labor Ministry opened up professions previously closed to Palestinians in June 2005. The number of recent Iraqi refugees numbers in the tens of thousands and is believed to be growing.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Emile Lahoud
Prime Minister--Fouad Siniora
Speaker of Parliament--Nabih Berri
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Fawzi Salloukh (resigned--resignation not accepted)
Finance Minister--Jihad Azour
Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister--Elias Murr
Ambassador to the U.S.--Antoine Chedid
Ambassadorto the UN--Nawaf Salam
Lebanon
maintains an embassy
in the United States at 2560 28th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
20008, tel. (202) 939-6300. There also are three consulates general
in the United States: 1959 East Jefferson, Suite 4A, Detroit,
MI 48207, tel. (313) 567-0233/0234; 7060 Hollywood Blvd., Suite
510, Los Angeles, CA 90028, tel. (213) 467-1253/1254; and 9 East
76th Street, New York, N.Y. l0021, tel. (212) 744-7905/7906 and
744-7985.
