Lebanon may witness a remarkable rise in the number of women serving in Parliament come May 2018 due to initiatives from women's groups, "civil society" activists, and the substantial number of female candidates-113 at the start of the election period. However, as this briefing paper shows, Lebanese women continue to face numerous challenges in entering government. The new electoral law passed in June 2017 does not provide women with equal opportunity to be elected, and it is yet to be seen whether it will increase female representation in Parliament. Nevertheless, the historic number of female candidates running in this election demonstrates that women are more determined than ever to increase their presence in Lebanese politics. Catherine Batruni is a doctoral candidate in Modern Middle Eastern History at the American University of Beirut. She is currently writing her thesis on the role of an American women's college in Beirut in the advancement of Lebanese women in the 20th century. Batruni additionally conducts research on Lebanese women's participation in public politics, and has presented papers on this subject at various international conferences. Marcus Hallinan is an independent research consultant with a Master of Arts in Political Studies from the American University of Beirut. Hallinan specialises in the Lebanese political system; non-state armed actors such as Al-Qaeda, the so-called Islamic State, and Hezbollah; and American foreign policy in the Middle East. He is currently consulting for the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies on the war in Yemen.

Four months after the parliamentary elections, the Lebanese state is still without a government. Politicians have been hindering the configuration of a new cabinet in order to maximise their own personal gains. This paper probes the positions of the most prominent political parties in the country, namely the Lebanese Forces, Free Patriotic Movement, Progressive Socialist Party, Lebanese Democratic Party, Future Movement, and Hezbollah, and examines the repercussions of this political vacuum on the economy. We raise the question: why does Lebanon continually find itself in this recurring situation where it is incapable of forming a timely government after elections? We argue that the political structure and sectarian arrangement of the Lebanese government allow such dysfunction to flourish through an absence of accountability measures in the constitution and a prioritizing of sectarian equilibrium as the primary factor in electing a government.