Iraqi and Lebanese Protesters Will Struggle to Change Systems Built to Resist

The protest movements underway in both Iraq and Lebanon share many of the same characteristics, including common complaints about inefficient and corrupt governments that don't deliver what citizens need. They also share a similar future: The prospects that either can effectively pressure their leaders to quickly reform the Iraqi and Lebanese political systems appear slim. That's because, by their very nature, the governing systems in the countries bracketing the Levant are exceptionally difficult to overhaul. After all, the governments, which both arose either in the aftermath of a devastating civil war in Lebanon’s case -- or in Iraq’s to preclude one -- were designed to solve and manage conflict, not necessarily to provide ideal governing systems. This was accomplished by carefully allotting positions to the leaders of the many competing sects in both countries, ideally in an egalitarian way. But the structures of both governments also allow an entrenched elite...