The transition’s tool: a government with legislative prerogatives
The government’s legislative prerogatives represent the necessary tool management of the transitional period. This transfer of power can only be achieved after a successful negotiation between the sectarian leaders and the party that has formulated a clear alternative political project. This party also needs to have the necessary knowledge, courage, and freedom of decision.
The transitional government will only be in power for a specific period of time (18 months), during which it will have exceptional legislative powers. Its main objective will be managing the cursed legacy of sectarian quotas (i.e., controlling the effects of bankruptcy), thereby saving society in its entirety, and establishing the legitimacy of the civil state.
An independent transitional government needs legislative prerogatives to avoid the profound impotency of the sectarian regime.
The idea of a government with legislative prerogatives is not the invention of Citizens in a State, nor is it new in Lebanon, but actually quite the opposite. The most prominent examples are the governments of the Fouad Chehab Presidency which were both presided over by Rasheed Karami. These governments established, through legislative decrees, the most prominent State institutions, such as the social security, the Employees’ Law, the Credit Law, the Civil Service Council Law, the Central Inspection and the Lebanese University. Some other governments have also been granted legislative prerogatives in the past:
- Khaled Chéhab (1952 – 1953)
- Sami el Solh (1954)
- Salim Al Hoss (1976 – 1977)
- Chafik Al Wazzan (1982 – 1983)
- Rasheed Karami (1984 – 1985)