that the National Pact created immobilism, which led to "administrative inefficiency both in decision-making and implementation". Although Lebanon went through huge social mobility, such as a rapid demographic change and urbanization after its independence, the state could not deal with social inequality and public discontent, because of the rigid form of power-sharing which lacked flexibility to accommodate changes in society. Once power-sharing took its form, it became the political and economic interests of those in power to maintain the system. Sectarian divisions It is also argued that the National Pact cemented the extant sectarian divisions by institutionalizing them through power-sharing. Politicians were usually regarded as representing religious communities, which resulted in non-coherent policy in the government. “The state-idea of Lebanon, fragile as it was, strengthened the sectarian differences already extant”. Lebanese Civil War The weakness of state and lack of national identity with fragmented sub-national segments made Lebanon susceptible to external factors. “The external dimension of the National Pact” was characterized with neutrality either toward “the Christian West or the Islamic Arab world”. Such attitude could be maintained as long as “faulty assumption” “that the balance-of-power in the region would remain unchanged” was valid. However, in reality, external environment around Lebanon after its independence dramatically changed. Specifically, two threats to the power of the National Pact in addition to the rising tensions between Muslims and Christians over political power in tandem to nearby violence of the Arab-Israeli war and accusations of a corrupt election all led to the Lebanese Civil War. Specifically, the first violation of the National Pact occurred when Lebanon accepted assistance through the Eisenhower doctrine. The second threat to the National Pact occurred when the Egyptian-Syrian United Arab Republic and the pan-Arab Campaign began pushing Lebanon to join and unite with other Arab countries, threatening the portion of the National Pact identifying Lebanon as an independent nation separate from other countries in the region. On top of the nearby violence and the threats to the National Pact, there was also increased tension between the Muslim sects within Lebanon and the Christian sects. Many larger groups began fragmenting, some uniting with Palestinian refugees fleeing the Arab-Israeli war, some of them joining leftist groups and opposing the National Pact, certain groups’ stress about involvement of the Lebanese military, and also various right wing organizations who agreed with the National Pact and its maintenance of national order. Controversy Though technically