The Jamahiriya Experiment in Libya: Qadhafi and Rousseau

Sami G. Hajjar

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00011307

The Jamahiriya Experiment in Libya: Qadhafi and Rousseau

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Sami G. Hajjar

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Only a few social scientists outside the field of Middle East studies are aware that in the sovereign state of Libya today there is no government. Indeed, it is not likely to have one so long as the country's strongman, Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi,1 continues to be the leader of the Libyan revolution. This has been the case ever since 2 March 1977, when the institution of government in its traditional legal-bureaucratic sense was dismantled, and the people's authority, exercised through people's congresses and committees, was proclaimed. By this action, Libya initiated in practice the so-called era of jamahiriya—the era of the masses and the practice of direct democracy – and has taken a number of steps in that direction. A recent example was the renaming of some of its embassies overseas as ‘people's bureaux’, with Libyan students and citizens taking charge of their functions and management.2 This action, instigated personally by Qadhafi, was intended to illustrate to the world that since Libya has no government, ordinary Libyan citizens overseas represent themselves directly to foreign peoples.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1980 , pp. 181 - 200

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00011307 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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^{page 181 note 1} There is no standard and agreed-upon way to spell Qadhafi's name, and the same applies for the term jamahiriya.

^{page 181 note 2} New York Times, 3 September 1979.

^{page 181 note 3} See the numerous comments by international personalities, and the mass media, in Bezzina, Charles (ed.), The Green Book: practice and commentary (Malta, 1979), ch. 2Google Scholar.

^{page 182 note 1} Libyan officials and scholars insist that the sources of Qadhafi's thought are Islamic and Arabic. For example, according to El-Shahat, M., Libya Begins the Era of the Jamahiriyat (Rome, 1978), p. 80Google Scholar: ‘The evidence forces us to conclude that Gaddafi's theory did not emanate from void but has its roots in a specifically Libyan reality’. During the international conference on the Green Book held in Libya, 1–310 1979Google Scholar, one participant in response to my talk on the subject stated simply, ‘I am against the opinion that there is any kind of comparison between Qadhafi and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’; Al-Nadwa (Benghazi), 3 10 1979, p. 5Google Scholar.

^{page 182 note 2} See Watkins, Frederick (ed.), Rousseau: political writings (New York, 1953), p. 286Google Scholar.

^{page 182 note 3} Part II, ‘Solution of the Economic Problem Socialism’, and Part III, ‘The Social Basis of the Third Universal Theory’, were published in 1978 and 1979, respectively.

^{page 182 note 4} ‘Document: the Libyan revolution in the words of its leaders’, in Middle East Journal (Washington, D.C.), 24, Spring 1970, p. 203Google Scholar.

^{page 183 note 1} Ibid. p. 204.

^{page 183 note 2} Ibid. pp. 206–9.

^{page 183 note 3} Bill, James and Leiden, Carl, Politics in the Middle East (Boston, 1979), p. 304Google Scholar.

^{page 183 note 4} See Muscat, Frederick, My President My Son (Malta, 1974)Google Scholar.

^{page 183 note 5} This division can be deduced by examining the sequence of events in Libya between 1969 and 1979, as reported in the ‘Chronology’ section of the Middle East Journal for this period. The events highlighted, unless otherwise noted, were reported by this quarterly publication.

^{page 184 note 1} The leaders of the revolution regarded both the Italian and Jewish communities as economically privileged, who under the monarchy were allowed to virtually monopolise segments of trade and commerce, and who prospered at the expense of Libyan citizens. See Ashiurakis, Ahmed A., The Rise of Jamahereya (Tripoli, 1977), pp. 26–7Google Scholar.

^{page 185 note 1} The General Secretariat of the General People's Congress of Libya, ‘Qadhafi's Historic Speech at Zawara’, Tripoli, 15 April 1973, in Arabic. Note that with respect to the second of his five-point programme, Qadhafi was paving the road for the Third Universal Theory as an alternative to communist and capitalist doctrines.

^{page 185 note 2} New York Times, 4 June 1973.

^{page 185 note 3} Ibid. 6 April 1974.

^{page 185 note 4} A prime example of a similar rôle was that of Chairman Mao. In the Arab world, the precedent was the rôle of ‘theoretician’ assumed by Michael Aflag, co-founder of the Ba'th party, first in Ba'thist Syria and more recently in Ba'thist Iraq.

^{page 185 note 5} The General People's Congress, formerly the General National Congress, was convened in Sebha during January 1976 ‘to lay down the foundation of a new political and economic Libya and sketch the pattern the country has to follow during the period now being called the period of transition, and which is intended to take the Libyan Arab Republic from the stage of Revolution to what is now being referred to as the “state of the State”.’ Muscat, Frederick, Libya as I See It (Malta, n.d.), pp. 43–4Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 1} Quoted in Bezzina (ed.), op. cit. p. 25.

^{page 186 note 2} Following the proclamation of jamahiriya, Libya's foreign policy has concentrated on ‘exporting’ this notion world-wide. During the October 1979 conference in Benghazi on the Green Book, Libyans emphasised that the theory is universal, while Qadhafi personally called upon the 500 present from many parts of the world to propagate the doctrine in their respective homelands.

In addition, jamahiriya has had a moderating effect on Libya's foreign policy in order to make Qadhafi appear in the eyes of the world as a responsible and respectable leader, whose Green Book is worthy of serious consideration. Hence, over the past four years, Libya has ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (1975), adopted U.N. anti-terrorist resolutions (1976), mediated with rebels in Chad to free French hostages (1977), and publically executed Libyan citizens convicted of setting fire to a church in Benghazi (1977).

^{page 187 note 1} Bezzina (ed.), op. cit. p. 24. These points were officially incorporated in the First and Second ‘Declarations of the Establishment of the People's Power’, adopted by the People's General Congress in November 1976 and March 1977, respectively. See the text of both Declarations in El-Shahat, op. cit. pp. 126–31.

^{page 187 note 2} Bezzina (ed.), op. cit. pp. 25–6.

^{page 187 note 3} El-Shahat, op. cit. p. 132. Of interest are the adjectives used to describe Qadhafi.

^{page 188 note 1} Sanger, Richard H., ‘Libya conclusions on an unfinished revolution’, in Middle East Journal, 29, Autumn 1975, p. 410Google Scholar. Sanger states on p. 417 that ‘the events of 1969–1975 would deserve to be ranked as one of the world's useful revolutions’.

^{page 188 note 2} Textual references are to the translated version of the Social Contract by Masters, Judith R., in Masters, Roger D. (ed.), Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Social Contract (New York, 1978)Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 3} All page references are to the English translation of the bilingual edition of al-Qadhafi, Mu'ammar, The Green Book, Part I, The Solution of the Problem of Democracy (London, 1976)Google Scholar.

^{page 189 note 1} This is Rousseau's thesis in his ‘Discourse on the Moral Effects of Arts and Sciences’, and in his ‘Discourse on the Origin of Inequality’. For a detailed discussion of this point, see Roger D. Masters, ‘Introduction’, in Masters (ed.), op. cit. pp. 10–12.

^{page 190 note 1} Ibid. p. 13.

^{page 190 note 2} See Social Contract, Book 1, ii.

^{page 190 note 3} Robert Derathé suggests that what threatened man in the state of nature were physical accidents such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions; see Rousseau et la science politique de son temps (Paris, 1950)Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 4} Cobban, Alfred, Rousseau and the Modern State (Hamden, Conn., 1964), p. 73Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 1} The English translation of the text omits the word ‘final’ (niha'i), which is part of the original Arabic version.

^{page 193 note 1} ‘The Historical Speech Delivered by Colonel Muammar Qaththafi, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Chairman of the People's General Congress of the Arab Socialist Union’, Tripoli, 1 September 1975.

^{page 193 note 2} See Green, Thomas Hill, ‘Precursor of Philosophical Idealism’, in Dodge, Guy H. (ed.), Jean-Jacques Rousseau: authoritarian libertarian? (Lexington, Mass., 1971), p. 41Google Scholar.

^{page 196 note 1} Masters (ed.), op. cit. p. 22.

^{page 197 note 1} Green Book, Part 1, p. 32.

^{page 198 note 1} Bianco, Mirella, Gadafi: voice from the desert (London, 1975), p. 95Google Scholar, quoted by Henry, Clement, ‘Qadhafi as Rousseau's Legislator?’, Confrence on the Green Book, Benghazi, 1–310 1979Google Scholar. It is Henry's thesis that when Qadhafi plays Rousseau's rôle of legislator, this both legitimates his activities and shields him from criticism.

^{page 198 note 2} Henry, op. cit. p. 10.

^{page 199 note 1} MacPherson, C. B., The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy (London, 1977), p. 98Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 199 note 3} Ibid. pp. 94–100.

^{page 199 note 4} ‘The Economic Aspect of the Third International Theory’, in the Green Book, Part II, pp. 7–15.

^{page 199 note 5} Ibid. p. 22.

^{page 199 note 6} Green Book, Part III, p. 46.

^{page 199 note 7} Ibid. p. 27.

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