The
Maronite Catholics and the
Druze founded modern
Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "
Maronite-Druze dualism" in
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate. Since the emergence of the post-1943 state and after the destruction of the Ottoman
Caliphate, 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. Seats in parliament were divided on a 6-to-5 ratio of
Christians to
Muslims. In 1990, the ratio changed to half and half. Positions in the government bureaucracy are allocated on a similar basis. The pact by custom allocated public offices along religious lines, with the top three positions in the ruling "troika" distributed as follows: the
president, a
Maronite Christian; the
speaker of the Parliament, a
Shi'a Muslim; and the
prime minister, a
Sunni Muslim. Efforts to alter or abolish the confessional system of allocating power have been at the centre of Lebanese politics for decades. Those religious groups most favoured 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. Many of the provisions of the national pact were codified in the 1989
Taif Agreement, perpetuating sectarianism as a key element of Lebanese political life. Although moderated somewhat under Ta'if, the Constitution gives the president a strong and influential position. The president has the authority to promulgate laws passed by the Parliament, form the government to issue supplementary regulations to ensure the execution of laws, and to negotiate and ratify treaties. The Parliament is elected by adult suffrage based on a system of majority or "winner-take-all" for the various confessional groups. The
majority age for voting in elections is 21. There has been a recent effort to switch to proportional representation which many argue will provide a more accurate assessment of the size of political groups and allow minorities to be heard. Most deputies do not represent political parties as they are known in the West, and rarely form Western-style groups in the assembly. Political blocs are usually based on confessional and local interests or on personal/family allegiance rather than on political affinities. The parliament traditionally has played a significant role in financial affairs, since it has the responsibility for levying taxes and passing the budget. It 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 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. These courts operate alongside the civil legal system and apply sect-specific personal status laws to members of their respective religious communities. Lebanese political institutions often play a secondary role to highly confessionalized personality-based politics. Powerful families play an independent role in mobilizing votes for both local and parliamentary elections. A lively panoply
of domestic political parties, some even predating independence, exists. The largest parties are all religiously aligned. The
Free Patriotic Movement, The
Kataeb Party, also known as the Phalange Party, the
National Bloc,
National Liberal Party,
Lebanese Forces and the
Guardians of the Cedars (now outlawed) each have their own base among Christians.
Amal and
Hezbollah are the main rivals for the organized
Shi'a vote. The PSP (
Progressive Socialist Party) is the leading
Druze party. Shi'a and Druze parties command fierce loyalty to their respective leaderships. There is more factional infighting among many of the Christian parties. Sunni parties have not been the standard vehicle for launching political candidates, and tend to focus across Lebanon's borders on issues that are important to the community at large. Lebanon's
Sunni parties include
Hizb ut-Tahrir,
Future Movement,
Independent Nasserist Organization (INO), the
Al-Tawhid, and
Ahbash. Besides the traditional confessional parties above, new secular parties have emerged, amongst which
Sabaa and the
Party of Lebanon representing a new trend in Lebanese politics towards secularism and a truly democratic society. In addition to domestic parties, there are branches of pan-Arab secular parties (
Ba'ath parties,
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. Events over the last decade and long-term demographic trends have upset the delicate
Muslim–
Christian–
Druze balance and resulted in greater segregation across the social 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. All factions have called for a reform of the political system. 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 reforms of the Ta'if agreement moved in this direction but have not been fully realized.
Palestinian refugees, predominantly
Sunni Muslims, whose numbers are estimated at between 160,000 and 225,000, are not active on the domestic political scene. In September 2004, the Lebanese Parliament voted 96–29 to amend the constitution to extend President
Émile Lahoud's six-year term, which was about to expire, by another three years. The move was supported by Syria, which maintained a large military presence in Lebanon. Former prime minister
Rafic Hariri was assassinated in February 2005. Following the withdrawal of
Syrian troops in April 2005, Lebanon
held parliamentary elections in four rounds, from 29 May to 19 June. The elections, the first for 33 years without the presence of Syrian military forces, were won by the Quadripartite alliance, which was part the
Rafik Hariri Martyr List, a coalition of several parties and organizations newly opposed to Syrian domination of Lebanese politics. In January 2015, the
Economist Intelligence Unit released a report stating that Lebanon ranked second in the
Middle East and 98th out of 167 countries worldwide on the 2014
Democracy Index. The index ranks countries according to election processes, pluralism, government functions, political participation, political cultures and fundamental freedoms. From October 2019, there have been mass protests against the government, with participation ranging from hundreds of thousands to estimates as high as two million citizens, that mobilized to demand political and economic reform. The protests, marked by calls to dismantle this system, reflected decades of growing intersectional activism, Although protesters pursued multiple goals, one of the most unifying demands, that transcended sectarian and ideological divides, was the dismantling of entrenched corruption perpetrated by the political elite and their associates, which profit from cronyism prevalent in the country. In May 2022, Lebanon
held its first election since a painful economic crisis dragged it to the brink of becoming a
failed state. Lebanon's crisis has been so severe that more than 80 percent of the population is now considered poor by the
United Nations. In the election, the Iran-backed Shia Muslim
Hezbollah movement and its allies lost their parliamentary majority. Hezbollah did not lose any of its seats, but its allies lost seats. Hezbollah’s ally, President
Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, was no longer the biggest Christian party after the election. A rival Christian party, led by
Samir Geagea, with close ties to Saudi Arabia, the
Lebanese Forces (LF), made gains. The Sunni
Future Movement, led by former prime minister
Saad Hariri, did not participate in the election, leaving a political vacuum for other Sunni politicians to fill. In November 2024, a
ceasefire deal was signed between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah to end 13 months of conflict. According to the agreement, Hezbollah was given 60 days to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces were obliged to withdraw from the area over the same period.
The fall of Assad’s Baathist regime in Syria was another blow to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, which was already weakened because of Israeli military actions. The Syrian regime change in December 2024 was said to start a new chapter in Lebanese politics. In January 2025,
Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army commander, was elected Lebanese 14th
president after a two-year vacancy. In February 2025, Prime Minister
Nawaf Salam, former president of the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), formed a new government of 24 ministers after two-year caretaker cabinet. On 26 February 2025, Lebanon's government of Nawaf Salam won a confidence vote in parliament. ==Executive branch==