A study of Qadhafi's claim to democracy in Libya

Abstract

We in the west have a tendency when advocating democratization not to recognise it as an essentially 'contested concept', which according to Gallie causes us to discriminate against and underestimate other peoples' interpretations of democracy, classifying them as ''perverse and lunatic" and filing them under the headings of false and undemocratic. This thesis hopes to avoid such discrimination and study objectively the theory and practice of the Third Universal Theory as propagated by Colonel Muamer el Gadhafi in The Green Book. Essentially, I mean not to challenge the notion of whether or not the Third Universal Theory can be considered democratic. No democracy can claim perfection as all contain a certain level of inefficiency, abuses and contradictions. Democracy is by nature an elusive concept as it is an utopian ideal, and therefore achieving fully in practice what is described in theory as unrealistic. By this rationale that an imperfect democracy (as all are to varying degrees), can claim democracy then any system can claim democracy. The idea therefore behind this thesis is to lay a foundation of what constitutes a democracy according to the western idea, then to introduce the Third Universal Theory, also under the title of democracy, as you cannot understand the latter without a grounded knowledge of the former from which it has been adapted and upon which it bases most of its criticisms. The question of democracy in Libya then comes in when studying the application of the Third Universal Theory according to its own pillars and principles. In conclusion, we will see that the Third Universal Theory is important as a criticism of democracy's inefficiencies and may in this respect help in the continual development and progression of democratic governance, by serving as a building block from which modern democracies in the west can incorporate some of the theory's main concepts, for instance the call for more participation of the people in governance without heavy bureaucracies or institutions acting as barriers. However, as a form of direct democracy in Libya, the Jamahiriya system has failed to live up to its theoretical aims.