The Federalists of Lebanon agree on the following 10 Principles!

By Federation of Lebanon @fed_leb

The federalists of Lebanon agree on the following 10 principles:

Principle of National Narratives: Lebanon is composed of multiple “Romans Nationaux” or “National Narratives”. Cultural diversity is the social reality at the source of Lebanon.

Principle of Self-government, (cuius region eius religio – governed and governor have to be of the same faith) is a cornerstone for secularism, accountability and development. Enabling each narrative to freely choose its governance system within a uniform ensemble.

Principle of Subsidiarity, is the basis of governance. Bottom-up power devolution. The smallest political entity is the municipality. Each municipality will be asked to choose its governance model and its cantonal belonging.

Principle of Solidarity, Development and wealth creation must be shared. Development of one municipality must have a spillover effect to drag along surrounding municipalities as much as possible. This is especially if the municipalities belong to different cantons.

Principle of Cantonal sovereignty, Legislative elections are per canton. No federal elections. Any federal decision that conflicts with Cantonal decision is not enforceable on the canton that doesn’t accept it.

Also Read: From the Roman legions to federal Lebanon, an essay into the roots of devolution by Iyad Boustany

Principle of Three-Level structure: Municipal, Cantonal and Federal are the three governance levels. Scaling up to reach critical mass to implement infrastructure projects are left to the discretion of the municipalities (multi-order scaling up).

Principle of Unanimity Federal Government is composed of a representative of each canton. All federal decisions require unanimity.

Principles Elections and Votations (Checks and Balances): To keep elected representatives in check and to control project by project, communities will periodically express their approvals or rejection of decisions/choices/projects in municipal, cantonal and federal referendums.

Principle of Rotation: all leadership positions in the federal government are shared by rotation equally amongst the appointed representatives of each canton.

Principle of Implementation: first municipal vote will allow each municipality to determine to each canton it wants to belong. The number of canton and semi-canton is not preset. It will be determined by the first municipal elections (no preset number of cantons).

The views expressed in this op-ed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of SyriacPress.