POLITICAL STRUCTURE – BACKGROUND
The Constitution
The National Pact
The Taef Accord
The political structure of modern Lebanon is based on two pillars: the constitution of 1926, and the unwritten National Pact of 1943. Both were modified by the National Reconciliation Charter of 1989 (informally known as the Taef Accord), the agreement that ended the Lebanese civil war. However, the Taef Accord has thus far been only partially implemented; although many of the changes it introduced are significant, they have not altered the basic foundations laid by the constitution and the National Pact.
The Constitution
The first Lebanese constitution was promulgated while Lebanon was being administered by France under the auspices of a League of Nations Mandate, and was thus modeled on the French Third Republic.
Despite some shortcomings and contradictory passages - mainly arising from the problem of how to deal with sectarianism - the constitution established Lebanon as one of the freest and most democratic of the Arab states, a title it continues to hold.
Among other guarantees, basic civil and political rights, equality before the law, and freedom of the press, speech and association, were all enshrined in the document.
In order to protect the interests of Lebanon’s numerous religious groups, the constitution intentionally designed a weak central government whose actions are subject to a complex system of checks and balances.
Structurally, the constitution divided the state into three branches:
The executive branch, which includes the president, prime minister and cabinet. The president is elected for a term of 6 years by parliament, and appoints the prime minister, who in turn is responsible for forming the government. However, both of the latter decisions are made in close consultation with parliament.
The legislative branch, which consists of a National Assembly (parliament) elected by the general public every four years. Although suffrage is universal, seats are distributed along sectarian lines: half of the seats go to members of Muslim sects and half to Christians. Within these general allocations, seats are divided proportionately among the 17 recognised religious groups, with every official sect assigned a quota for the districts in which they have a significant presence.
The judicial branch is made up of four courts of cassation (three for civil and commercial cases, and one for criminal cases) which constitute the highest courts of appeals for their respective fields of jurisdiction, the Constitutional Council, which rules on the constitutionality of laws, and a Supreme Council, which hears cases lodged against the executive branch. The Lebanese judiciary is based on the French Napoleonic code for civil law, but also includes a system of lower religious courts with jurisdiction over family law cases within the respective sectarian communities.
The National Pact
The second pillar of the Lebanese political system, the 1943 National Pact, was the result of a series of consultations between Bechara al-Khoury, a Maronite, and Riad al-Solh, a Sunni, who became the first president and prime minister of Lebanon respectively.
At the time of independence, both Christians and Muslims were insecure about their positions in the new country. After a degree of protection and autonomy under the Ottomans and the French, many Christians were afraid that Lebanon would be swallowed up by its Muslim neighbours.
Many Muslims, on the other hand, resented the separation from Syria, and were concerned that Christian ties to France in particular would lead to the continuation of Western hegemony in the country.
According to the unwritten Pact, Christians were to accept Lebanon’s “Arab face” - and its obligations to cooperate with the family of Arab states - and promise to resist seeking help or interference from the West.
In return, Muslims would accept the legitimacy of Lebanon in its current borders, recognise the importance of Lebanon’s continuing cultural and intellectual ties to the West, and renounce any intention of seeking a union with other Arab states.
In inter-Arab conflicts, the Pact stipulated that Lebanon should take a neutral position.
The Pact stipulated that public offices should be divided proportionately among the sects according to the 1932 census. However, it made no provisions for changing demographics in the future. Furthermore, it allocated top political posts along sectarian lines, assigning the positions of president, prime minister, and speaker of the Chamber of Deputies to the Maronite, Sunni and Shia sects respectively. This convention is still observed.
The Pact also specified that parliamentary seats should be distributed along a 6:5 Christian-Muslim ratio. The Taef Accord changed this ratio to 1:1.
Taef Accord
In 1989, the kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and the president of Algeria formed a Tripartite Committee with the aim of finding a resolution to the Lebanese civil war, which had raged for nearly 15 years and threatened regional escalation. In close consultation with the US, Syria and major Lebanese factions, and drawing upon the numerous documents put forth in prior attempts to mitigate the conflict, the Committee drafted what would eventually be known as the Taef Accord.
The Committee then gathered 62 surviving members of the original 1972 Lebanese Parliament in Taef, Saudi Arabia, to discuss national reconciliation on the basis of the draft accord. The consultations began on 30 September 1989, and the deputies reached an agreement on 22 October.
The Taef Accord did not seek to alter the fundamental spirit of the constitution or the National Pact. Rather, it simply attempted to adapt their specifications to more accurately reflect Lebanese demographics.
To this end, powers were shifted from the Maronite president to the Sunni prime minister, and the role of the Shia speaker of the parliament was also strengthened by extending his term from 1 to 4 years. The Accord enlarged parliament from 99 deputies (54 Christian, 45 Muslim) to 128 (64 Christian, 64 Muslim).
Although Article 1.2.7 (G) identifies the eradication of political sectarianism as a national priority, the Accord did not provide a timetable for this crucial process. In the interim, it emphasises the need for parity between the confessional groups. Some critics argue, therefore, that the Taef Accord is essentially an institutionalisation of the National Pact and the concept of political sectarianism in Lebanon.
In addition to these logistical specifications, the Accord reiterated and refined the identity, structure and principles of Lebanon as laid out in the original constitution: the Accord declared Lebanon a free, sovereign, united country with an Arab identity, a democratic republic committed to free-market economic policies.
The Accord also codified a number of non-political reforms, established a plan to restore Lebanese sovereignty across the country (including the disbanding and disarmament of all militias), reaffirmed the need to liberate South Lebanon from Israeli occupation, and recognised the special relationship between Lebanon and Syria.
Documents:
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Constitution 23 May 1926, incorporating all amendments through
21 September 1990
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