Religious diversity has always been a feature of the Middle East region. The need to ensure peaceful coexistence within a religiously heterogeneous society contributed to the emergence of a unique system of complex organization of socio-political relations - political confessionalism. This phenomenon is based on two elements: the actual "confessional" (fr. confessionelle) - based on religious affiliation and solidarity of members of society, and "communal" (fr. communautaire) - based on family-generic, patronage-client and territorial ties. All this together determines the socio-political status and position of the individual in the state [Dagher, 2001, p. 132; Khalaf, 2003, p.110-111]. In multi-confessional States, religious minorities appear in the political arena as quasi-national groups, as separate socio-cultural, and sometimes socio-economic communities. In such a situation, losing the significance of the worldview system, religion retains only the significance of a powerful consolidating force [Islam in modern politics..., 1986, p. 208]. Confessionalism in the Arab East was most fully manifested under external influence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. on the territory of Lebanon, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. At that time, confessionalism, on the one hand, served as an intermediate stage between the collapse of feudal society and the formation of an independent national state, and on the other, it made it easier for the Porte to control the situation in multi - confessional Lebanon [Makdisi, 2000, p.166-167, 174]. Later, France pursued a similar policy of relying on ethnic and religious minorities in Syria and Lebanon to counteract the growth of Arab nationalism and the national liberation movement. After Lebanon gained national independence, the confessional system immediately revealed its negative consequences. Each community defended its own identity, and its political and economic interests often took precedence over the State. Dif ... Read more