The National Pact () is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

as a

multiconfessional Confessionalism is a system of government that is a ''de jure'' mix of religion and politics. It typically entails distributing political and institutional power proportionally among confessional communities. Governmental structure Some cou ...

state following negotiations between the

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

Maronite Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...

, and

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

leaderships. Enacted in the summer of 1943, the National Pact was formed by president

Bechara El Khoury Bechara Khalil El Khoury (; 10 August 1890 – 11 January 1964) was a Lebanese politician who served as the 1st president of Lebanon, holding office from 21 September 1943 to 18 September 1952, apart from an 11-day interruption (11–22 Novembe ...

and prime minister

Riad Al Solh Riad Al Solh (; 17 August 1894 – 17 July 1951) was a Lebanese politician and statesman who served as the first and fifth prime minister of Lebanon from 1943 to 1945 and from 1946 to 1951, respectively. The pact also established Lebanon's independence from France. Key points of the agreement stipulate that: *

Lebanese Christians Christianity has a long and continuous history in Lebanon. Biblical scriptures show that Peter and Paul evangelized the Phoenicians, leading to the dawn of the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch. As such, Christianity in Lebanon is as old as Chri ...

do not seek Western intervention, and accept that Lebanon had Arab features. *

Lebanese Muslims Islam has a long, continuous history in Lebanon. A substantial portion of the Lebanese population is Muslim, probably representing a majority of the population, although the precise percentage is difficult to ascertain. The Lebanese constitu ...

abandon their aspirations to unite with

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and the

Arab World The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

. *The

President of the Republic The President of the Republic is a title used for heads of state and/or heads of government in countries having republican form of government. Designation In most cases the president of a republic is elected, either: * by direct universal s ...

and the

Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces The Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces () is responsible for the operational command of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). According to the Constitution, the President of Lebanon is the commander-in-chief. The commander always holds the Gene ...

must be

Maronite Catholic The Maronite Church (; ) is an Eastern Catholic ''sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The head of the Maronite ...

. *The Prime Minister of the Republic must be a

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

. *The Speaker of the Parliament must be a

Shia Muslim Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

. *The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and the

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

must be

Greek Orthodox Christian Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Roma ...

. *The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces must be a

. *There must be a ratio of 6:5 in favour of

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

(and

) in the

Lebanese Parliament The Lebanese Parliament (, ) is the unicameral national parliament of the Lebanon, Republic of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year term in Electoral district, multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's divers ...

. A Christian majority of 51% in the 1932 census was the underpinning of a government structure that gave the Christians control of the presidency, command of the armed forces, and a parliamentary majority. However, following a wider trend, the generally poorer Muslim population has increased faster than the richer Christians. Additionally, the Christians were emigrating in large numbers, further eroding their only marginal population edge, and it soon became clear that Christians wielded a disproportionate amount of power. As years passed without a new census, dissatisfaction with the government structure and sectarian rifts increased, eventually sparking the

Lebanese Civil War 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 religious diversity of the ...

. The

Taif Agreement The 1989 Taif Agreement (, ), officially known as the ('')'', 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 y ...

of 1989 changed the ratio of

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to 1:1 and reduced the power of the Maronite president; it also provided that eventually, the Parliament would become bicameral, with a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

representing religious communities and a

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

chosen on a non-sectarian basis. It is commonly believed that once this bicameral Parliament is established, the Senate would have a 1:1 Christian-to-Muslim ratio similarly to the current Parliament and the President of the Senate would be required to be a Druze, in accordance with the dictates of the National Pact.

History

Pursuit of Lebanese independence

In 1922, the

French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (; , also referred to as the Levant States; 1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning the territorie ...

assigned France control of the government of what are now

and

, separating them from the former

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. It provided for the placement of French troops within both nations in order to defend both states and their sovereignty, in addition to establishing Lebanese and Syrian militias to support the Mandate. Additionally, the French mandate allowed France complete access to infrastructure in both Lebanon and Syria, sole control over their foreign relations, and power over the excavation and archeological research of antique artifacts in both countries. It established the official languages in both nations as French and Arabic. Also, it specified that France must report back to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

on a yearly basis with a report of the progress in Lebanon and Syria. Though promising both countries financial compensation and reimbursement for these decisions, there was significant pushback from those in both Syria and Lebanon. In Lebanon specifically, prior to attaining independence, much of the government's efforts and politics in general were simply centered around gaining independence from France. When finally on the verge of attaining independence, the difficulty in finding effective ways of organizing the government became most apparent given the enormous religious diversity of the country. The creation of the National Pact gave Lebanon a solidified structure to pursue with their new found independence, though not necessarily appeasing all religious groups within the country. For many, it provided a necessary order and an outward sense of unity and multi-confessionalism that would allow them to maintain their own political state. ().

Implications of the 1932 Lebanese census

In 1932, the Lebanese government under French mandate conducted a census that ultimately determined political representation within the Lebanese government after acquiring independence through the National Pact. The census served not only to ascertain the ratios of different religious sects within Lebanon, ultimately determining their ratios within the government, but Because the results of the census demonstrated a Maronite Christian majority of 51%, the National Pact then set in place the requirements of a Maronite Christian always holding the presidency and the parliament having a 6:5 ratio in favor of Christians. Controversies arose in response to the census, the first of which being that the census did not provide accurate definition of Lebanese citizenship. Instead, it worked off a definition created by the Ottoman Empire defining it as a presence in Lebanon during August 1924, the last time such a presence would have been recorded. This made it difficult to assure that the resulting ratios enumerated by the census were entirely accurate representations of the demographics of the population. Because of this, some argued that the census itself was biased, that it was created with the intention of maintaining a status quo representation of Lebanon as a Western Euro-American-allied Christian nation and that it helped maintain the power of the elites. This would be increasingly important as the 1932 Lebanese census became the basis for the creation of all of the ratios defined within the National Pact, perpetuating power of the Maronite Christians within the government in Lebanon. Because Maronite Christians were more closely aligned with the French authorities and French interests in Lebanon, many feared that their subsequent power and the establishment of the National Pact assuring Lebanese independence was undertaken with purpose of adhering to French interests.

Introduction and reception

The National Pact was first introduced to the public on October 7, 1943, by

Implications

Immobilism

It is argued that the National Pact created immobilism, which led to "administrative inefficiency both in decision-making and implementation". Although Lebanon went through huge social mobility, such as a rapid demographic change and urbanization after its independence, the state could not deal with social inequality and public discontent, because of the rigid form of power-sharing which lacked flexibility to accommodate changes in society. Once power-sharing took its form, it became the political and economic interests of those in power to maintain the system.

Sectarian divisions

It is also argued that the National Pact cemented the extant sectarian divisions by institutionalizing them through power-sharing. Politicians were usually regarded as representing religious communities, which resulted in non-coherent policy in the government. "The state-idea of Lebanon, fragile as it was, strengthened the sectarian differences already extant".

Lebanese Civil War

The weakness of state and lack of national identity with fragmented sub-national segments made Lebanon susceptible to external factors. "The external dimension of the National Pact" was characterized with neutrality either toward "the Christian West or the Islamic Arab world". Such attitude could be maintained as long as "faulty assumption" "that the balance-of-power in the region would remain unchanged" was valid. However, in reality, external environment around Lebanon after its independence dramatically changed. Specifically, two threats to the power of the National Pact in addition to the rising tensions between Muslims and Christians over political power in tandem to nearby violence of the Arab-Israeli war and accusations of a corrupt election all led to the Lebanese Civil War. Specifically, the first violation of the National Pact occurred when Lebanon accepted assistance through the

Eisenhower doctrine The Eisenhower Doctrine was a policy enunciated by U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 5, 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East". Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country c ...

. The second threat to the National Pact occurred when the Egyptian-Syrian

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. It was initially a short-lived political union between Republic of Egypt (1953–1958), Egypt (including Occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Ara ...

and the pan-Arab Campaign began pushing Lebanon to join and unite with other Arab countries, threatening the portion of the National Pact identifying Lebanon as an independent nation separate from other countries in the region. On top of the nearby violence and the threats to the National Pact, there was also increased tension between the Muslim sects within Lebanon and the Christian sects. Many larger groups began fragmenting, some uniting with Palestinian refugees fleeing the Arab-Israeli war, some of them joining leftist groups and opposing the National Pact, certain groups' stress about involvement of the Lebanese military, and also various right wing organizations who agreed with the National Pact and its maintenance of national order.

Controversy

Though technically at the time of its passing, the National Pact guaranteed the president to be Maronite Christian due to the majority Christian population in Lebanon, however, due to the lack of checks on the president within the

Lebanese constitution The Constitution of Lebanon was adopted on 23 May 1926. Initiated during the French Mandate, it established a governance model based on confessionalism to accommodate Lebanon's religious communities. Drafted with contributions from prominent f ...

the decision to always have a Maronite president had much larger implications than were initially intended. The Lebanese Constitution leaves the presidential position unchecked by parliament, so an elected Maronite president would have complete executive authority. Additionally, the fear for many that the 1932 national census that led to the statistics ultimately resulting in a permanent Maronite Christian presidency may not have been entirely accurate due to inability to define Lebanese citizenship and the feared bias to maintain the status quo, also called the presidency into question. Many feared that the desire of the political elite to identify Lebanon as a primarily Christian nation led to inherent biases within the census and the ultimate decision to divide the government along the ratios that it did. This was reiterated by the idea that the Maronite Christians were the most closely aligned with the French mandate in Lebanon. So, some believed that the National Pact was put into place in order to maintain the same status quo as was held under the French mandate under the guise of promoting independence. Some other controversy that surrounds the National Pact is that it was formulated through constitutional amendments, though much of the processes it stipulates and requirements are never actually detailed. For this reason, there is no written time limit on how long the stipulations within the National Pact should take place, even though the demographics of the Lebanese population may not always be with a Maronite Christian majority. Additionally, no processes were detailed describing the ways the governmental proportions should be enacted. In fact, the National Pact directly contradicts other aspects of the constitution stating that anyone can run for office solely on the basis of merit and competence, never once acknowledging religious affiliation.

References

;Specific ;General * Ayubi, Nazih N., "Over-stating the Arab State", London: I.B. Tauris, 1995, pp 190–191. * Binder, Leonard. "Politics in Lebanon". New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1966. * * Randal, Jonathan. "Going All the Way: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and the War in Lebanon". New York: The Viking Press, 1983.

External links

A short but detailed description of the National Pact
{{Authority control Political history of Lebanon 1943 in Lebanon