National Pact

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The National Pact is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state, and has shaped the country to this day. Following negotiations between the Shi'ite, Sunni, and Maronite leaderships, the National Pact was born in the summer of 1943 allowing Lebanon to be independent. Among the following key points of the agreement are:

the Maronites to not seek foreign intervention and accept Lebanon as an "Arab" affiliated country, instead of a "Western" one.
the Muslims (Shi'a and Sunnis) to abandon their aspirations to unite with Syria
the President of the Republic to always be Maronite.
the President of the Council of Ministers (prime minister) to always be Sunni.
the President of the National Assembly to always be Shi'a.
the deputy speaker of the Parliament has to always be a Greek Orthodox
Parliament members to be in a ratio of 6:5 in favour of Christians to Muslims (Binder 1966:276).

A Christian majority 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 (Randal 1983: 50).

The Taif Agreement of 1990 changed the ratio of Parliament to 50:50 and reduced the power of the Maronite Christian president.