ABSTRACT
Politically, the Republic of Lebanon has been a product of its long experience of multiethnic coexistence (when this worked), of particular institutions and traditions elaborated under the mandate system, and of an agreement, the National Pact, couched inevitably in negative rather than positive terms. On the positive side, this legacy provided for freedom and for participation in the affairs of state by all groups, although in a descending scale of effective power. On the negative side, the peculiar system of checks and balances explicit or implicit in the system has often made for immobilism, log-rolling, compromise where decisiveness is called for, the resort to wasta (special personal influence), and the inability of leaders to make forceful decisions without putting the whole structure at risk. As a result, the freedom the system has offered has depended on luck and good fortune to a large extent, on economic prosperity, a favorable and calm international atmosphere, and the predisposition of stronger neighbors and the great powers to tolerate or to protect Lebanon.
