describe power sharing in lebanon
Answers
Lebanons experiment with power sharing dates back to 1861. In the 140 years since then foreign powers and Lebanese leaders have devised four different power-sharing regimes for the country. Although Lebanon has experienced violent crises, including two civil wars, none of the attempts at crisis resolution has altered the fundamentals of the Lebanese power-sharing institutions. At most, these institutions have been recalibrated to address changes in the domestic and international context. As one of the most enduring power-sharing experiments, one that has lasted for over a century under shifting domestic and international conditions, the Lebanese case study is well suited to shed light on the relations between power sharing on the one hand and the durability of domestic peace and the transition to democracy on the other.
My argument is twofold: First, power sharing has brought long periods of peace, but this has depended on external protectors: When there have been foreign protectors, peace has lasted, but the withdrawal of an existing protector or the intervention of new would-be protectors has often brought significant turmoil to the country. Second, even though all three regimes established since the end of the Ottoman Empire have been based on the notion that Lebanon must make a transition from power sharing based on religious affiliation to one citizen, one vote democracy, power-sharing institutions have thwarted the countrys transition to democracy.
Even though Lebanon is a parliamentary democratic republic it also has a framework of confessionalism (a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives from certain religious communities), so most of the time the administrative power is not equally distributed.