Is Lebanon a democracy?

[NNN0LHI]

I keep hearing repeated that Lebanon is a democracy but is it really?

I think I remember reading about some wording in their Constitution that prohibits the person who gets the most votes and may be the most qualified person for the job from becoming Prime Minister if that person happens to be a Muslim.

Regardless of the election outcome the PM has to be a Christian. Even though Christians are in the minority in Lebanon.

Is that true? Do I have this wrong? Does anyone know?

Don

[Wonk]

1. Unwritten agreement, according to this source

http://www.irinnews.org/S_report.asp?ReportID=51263&SelectRegion=Middle_East

Year in Review 2005 - Developments in democracy

(snip)

There is also an unwritten agreement that Lebanon’s president has to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of Parliament a Shi’ite Muslim.

(more at the link)

[NNN0LHI]

2. Thank you for the clarification Wonk. Much appreciated n/t

[Kagemusha]

3. Okay.... what you need is a little context with this

This system was set up as a reconciliation system after years of civil war, Israeli invasion, occupation of the south, and finally, Israeli pullout from the south (and now limited re-invasion but that's now, not when the system was created). It was a bargain with the key ethnic/ religious groups to keep the hard-won peace by preventing any one group from simply walking over the others. This includes the Shiites, and therefore, the system makes it hard for the Christian and Sunni factions to move the official government towards civil war by seeking to crush Hezbollah on Israel's behalf. (Totally besides the army including a lot of Shiites and the rest being largely pro-Syria including the command structure)

Myself, I wouldn't be quick to call Israel's coalition politics a great improvement over this system. But, Israel is a much more politically stable country (which IMHO is saying something (bad) about Lebanon's political stability)

Judged by the standard of keeping the Lebanese from killing each other nonstop, the agreement was going fairly well until Hezbollah's attack on Israel lately. Judged by the standard of serving Israel's national interests, maybe their killing each other is better for Israel... but Israel didn't get a vote when the war-weary Lebanese patched this thing together, which was before that big assassination last year, of course.

[question everything]

5. An interest comment earlier

cannot remember by whom, that explains the recent election results in both Lebanon and Palestine:

Voters had a choice between the ruling elites and the military Islamists and unless they belong to the ruling class, they chose the Islamists.

[Selatius]

4. It's a very fragile, weak republic

There are agreements in place that would prevent the militias from re-arming and waging war against each other. You cited one of them. Because the peace in Lebanon has always been precarious, Israel's bombing of Lebanon could have the unfortunate blow back of sending the rest of Lebanon back into civil war. This time, it could be not over the make-up of the Lebanese Parliament with respect to Muslims and Christians but over whether Hezbollah should disarm or be allowed to keep its weapons.

If it comes to that, it is possible that several Shi'ite militias will side with Hezbollah against Christian militias and possibly Sunni militias that want Hezbollah to disarm.

[eridani]

6. And the Syrian army was keeping Hezbollah in line

They were removed by the current government, with the effect that Hezbollah now has the option of getting out of hand.

[Kagemusha]

7. Well in all fairness Syria ensured Hezbollah stayed an irritant too

Granted, Iran was supplying Hezbollah anyway, and Syria only had so much control, but this was a case of, well, managed chaos, both in terms of ensuring that it is not too chaotic, but also, that it is not insufficiently chaotic that Israel starts looking at Syria like it's ready for regime change.

Hezbollah is like a mafia whose business is Jihad. No Jihad is bad for business. So they took a good opportunity to revive it. I don't think that means Israel needs to stoop to their level, but who cares what I think...

[Odin2005]

8. The main destablizer is differences in birthrates.

Muslim Lebanese have a higher birthrate then the Christians. Christians used to be the majority, but kept thier political dominance when the majority became Muslim. This, IIRC, is what triggered the civil war.