Regardless of how the political situations in Lebanon and Iraq may end, there is no doubt that the movements occurring there have come to represent an important transition in the consciousness of their citizens.  They have come to question the competency of confessional forms of governance that their political systems are based on in dealing with pressing crises that have exacerbated life’s difficulties facing citizens such as the spread of poverty and unemployment, the deterioration of public services, and the spread of corruption among all layers of the political ruling classes.