Why Lebanon struggles to form governments

By M.A. | BEIRUT

LEBANON'S POLITICS operates slowly. It took two and a half years for the country to elect its current president, nine years to hold parliamentary elections and 12 years to pass a budget. The forming of a government appears to obey a similar temporal rule. Lebanon has spent nearly two and a half of the past 13 years without a government, and talks to form a new one have dragged on for over seven months. The country’s Sunni prime minister, Saad Hariri (pictured), said this month that he was hopeful that a new cabinet could be formed before the end of the year. Why does it take so long?

Lebanon’s sectarian political system lies at the heart of the problem. Based on a power-sharing agreement that dates back to French colonial rule, seats in parliament are shared out proportionally among the country’s 18 religious groups. Government posts and public-sector jobs are also divvied up among the sects. The president, for example, is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shia. Cabinet decisions must be passed by a two-thirds majority, but thanks to an agreement reached in 2008 Hizbullah, the Shia militia-cum-political party, and its allies have a guaranteed third of cabinet seats, which gives them a veto. Reaching a conclusion on anything, including the formation of a cabinet, requires confessional groups to put aside their differences. In a society divided along sectarian lines, this takes time.