Confessionalism (politics)

It typically entails distributing political and institutional power proportionally among confessional communities.

The constitution of Iraq encouraged such power-sharing, due to the parliamentary system and the initial requirement for a super-majority to elect the President.

[1] The repartition of assembly seats on a confessional basis in the Middle East was invented by the Ottoman Empire (e.g. in the Ottoman Parliament) and continued in several post-Ottoman countries with reserved seats for non-Muslim, namely Christian, minorities (Syria, Jordan, Iraq), or for all religious communities including Muslim subgroups and Christian churches (Lebanon).

[5] The Lebanese constitution also guarantees segmental autonomy to 18 recognized communities in the country in domains such as education.

Political parties with religious ideology are sometimes banned on the grounds of promoting violence and hatred (e.g. Vlaams Blok and Batasuna), altering the national character, or having outside support.

[10] Multiconfessional countries have a power sharing arrangement between people of different faiths, usually three or more significant confessional groups within the same jurisdiction.