Beyond the Country: Nature of Government in Lebanon

To talk about the nature of government in a country, I believe it is essential to look back at its history to understand a little better how it got to where it is now.
Lebanon was originally a part of Greater Syria and under the rule of France in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1920 when Britain and France made a Partiton of arab the speaking countries in the Ottoman empire. Lebanon wanted to have independence no matter what, so they created their own government at the time and tried to split themselves from the Greater Syria.
France did not like the idea one bit, so they arrested the new Lebanese government and only released it a few years later due to international political pressure. The French accepted their independence in 1943 but only removed their troops in 1946.

Lebanon consisted of two dominant religions at the time. The CHristians and the Muslims. These two groups came into an agreement that the President of Lebanon would be a Christian while the Prime Minister would be a Muslim.
One of the first conflicts was regarding religion due to Nassar's radicalization of the Arabs throughout the Middle East. The conflict consisted of Muslims wanting to take the christians out of power. Even though the conflict was short lived and they had help from the US to settle the civil war in Lebanon, it was a headway into other future conflicts.

Historian Mitchell Bard says that "The final straw in the feud occurred on April 13, 1975, when a bus carrying a group of Palestinian terrorists was attacked by the Christian Phalangists, who had been at odds with the Palestinians". The cycle of violence quickly escalated to a civil war with Christians fighting the Palestinian and Muslim forces."Syria then saw an opportunity to "swallow" its neighbor by siding with the Muslims. So, regarding it's government Lebanon is hardly seen as independent due to the fact that it is under the Syrian government.

Confessional System

Image Source: http://www.anigalla.net/70mm/post/Lebanon-Elections-and-Results-2009-Lebanon-Election-Results-Exit-Poll-Results.aspx

According to the Middle East expert historian, Bard, "on September 2, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1559 declaring its support for a free and fair presidential election in Lebanon, conducted according to Lebanese constitutional rules, devised without foreign interference or influence.

Nowadays Lebanon is still considered a republic and its president is Michel Suleiman a Catholic from an independent party. The Prime minister is Najib Mikati, a Muslim.