Abstract : No major citizenship reform has been adopted in Lebanon since the creation of the
Lebanese citizenship in 1924. Moreover, access to citizenship for foreign residents does
not depend on established administrative rules and processes, but instead on ad hoc
political decisions. The Lebanese citizenship regime is thus characterized by immobilism
and discretion. This paper looks at the relationship between citizenship regime
and confessional democracy, defined as a system of power sharing between different
religious groups. It argues that confessional democracy hinders citizenship reform and
paves the way to arbitrary naturalization practices, and that, in turn, the citizenship
regime contributes to the resilience of the political system. In other words, the citizenship
regime and the political system are mutually reinforcing.