Thoughtful and thought provoking. I have to play devil's advocate a bit here and disagree with the contention that Lebanon's ills are from its confessional system, though. I don't think the demographic makeup of any type of system leads to lack of democracy, lack of corruption or anything else. Would a quota system that requires a certain amount of women/black/Latinx/LGBTQ etc lead to corruption in the West? I'd argue no. It creates a balance of power where a minority group has both real power and the perception of protection. Both of those things are important. To my mind, it's the checks and balances or lack thereof that lead to the dysfunction of a system like Lebanon. I don't really have a dog in the fight of maintaining the confessional system or not. If it contributes to some measure of societal harmony, so be it. If Lebanon erased its confessional system tomorrow and instituted a one person one vote system, without any accountability measures, it ends up in the exact same place as the day before, but with many groups lacking representation.
To me, the most meaningful way forward is reforming the system by instituting within it measures for transparent and open governance that can eliminate any need for the individual's relationship to the state to be based on sect (even if their representatives continue to be on that basis).
For example:
- all hiring for state jobs (aside from ministers and immediate aides) through a meritocratic, open, competitive system
-placement of inspectors general in each ministry, fully staffed with separate offices from the agencies to carry out oversight functions of each agency and release public reporting regularly
-passing of whistleblower protection laws
-overhaul of the justice system and appointment of judges through a transparent process with vetting by non-aligned non-profit organizations
-strict limits on pensions and their accumulation
-anti-nepotism and anti-lobbying laws
-instituting an open, competitive transparent process for all government contracts. All calls for proposals must be detailed and cannot be tailored to any one contractor. Finalists' proposals should be posted publicly.
-passing personal status laws that ensure citizens' relationship to the state is not based on sect: civil marriage, civil adoption, etc.
On elections:
-Creation of an electoral commission that oversees local and national elections. Its powers should be modeled after any European state's electoral commission. No contributions above a certain amount, all contributions reported through a verifiable system, all spending must be transparent, etc.
-empowering oversight committees within parliament with subpoena powers
These are modest start for transparent governance, but a start nonetheless. And they're achievable.
On the political end, regardless of what happens with the confessional system, I've seen a lot of folks here and elsewhere proposing a confessional upper house (senate) and a non-confessional lower house. If anything, I would think the opposite. The upper house is meant to rise above the fray, the experts and deliberators, if you will. And the lower house is the representative of the people (the one person one vote institution, voice of the people).
Either way, I don't think the fight with the confessional system is the most meaningful one to end corruption, tribalism, interpersonal sectarianism, or any other of society's ills. Corruption can plague even the world's least confessional system. Fear mongering is not limited to sectarian system (Hello from the country where we're told on a daily basis that central american immigrants are going to steal our jobs and kill our children). BTW, how are things over in non-confessional Russia in terms of corruption these days
Ending the sectarian system is fine as a slogan to paper over a deeper problem. It would be tantamount to burying our head in the sand if we pretend like it's going to do anything to end Lebanon's governance issues. (I also think it dismisses the real and perceived fears of fellow citizens and calls for ending sectarianism fail to provide contextual and historical analyses of the country and take into account geopolitical realities, but that's neither here nor there in this particular discussion).