1

Session 5 The Problem of Democracy: Libya, Cuba, the US

Lecture points:

• Gaddafi and the Libyan Anti-State State (the Jamahiriya) • The Bedouin Leader of the Anti-State

• A Tent in Sirte • US, UK media reports on the rise of the Jamahiriya

• The Green Book

2

Gaddafi and the Libyan Anti-State State (the Jamahiriya)

Anthropology and pastoral nomadism The politics of pastoral nomadism

The Bedouin Leader of the Anti-State

Biography and national history Rapid post-colonial transformations The problem of “everyday” political theory

3

A Tent in Sirte “His [Gaddafi’s] birthplace was the low tent of his father, a semi-nomad, pitched somewhere south of Sirte in the open desert that formed the family’s traditional range-lands. The Sirtica, although administratively part of Tripolitania in the west and part of Cyrenaica in the east, has always been an extended frontier district, a historically ungovernable no man’s land between the main centres of population round Tripoli, Benghazi and the southern oases. In being born there, [Muammar Gaddafi] acquired the politically invaluable credential of being neither a true Tripolitanian, nor a Cyrenaican, nor even a Fezzanese, but a bedu of the open desert that is common to all Libya, and from which many Libyans like to think they themselves once came.” (Wright, 1981, p. 124)

4

desert tent Quranic school British Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, Surrey struggle against global forces

5

“How can a soldier remain passive and salute a king who has filled the country with foreign forces? How can you accept being stopped on the street by an American? That happened to me personally. When I wanted to enter Wheelus base, I was turned away….When I told them of my position as an officer in the Libyan army, I was told, ‘true, but you will not enter!’ I replied, ‘it is Libyan territory.’ Response, ‘it is futile to argue, you will not enter, period!’.” (Gaddafi quoted in Vandewalle, 1998, p. 61)

6

“Libyans often remark on the vertigo with which their recent history has left them. From Ottoman province to Italian colony, from the devastation of a colonial war to the destruction of World War II, from abject poverty to splendid riches, from conservative monarchy to radical revolution, the Libyans have had barely a decade of peace, stability and continuity in the last 80 years. Many educated Libyans acknowledge that this had confused their sense of what their country should be, has undermined efforts at calculation and investment for the future, and has created a cynicism and alienation well beyond what is already typical of the Third World.” (Anderson, 1982, pp. 533-534)

7

The Green Book

1. How representative is the degree and nature of representation in Westminster systems of democracy?

2. What is the additional problem for democratic representation that is posed by political parties?

3. Voting “yes” or “no” in a referendum—why is this criticized? 4. Who should own/control the media? 5. Is the Jamahiriya concept that of a “direct democracy”—and, what

doubts are expressed about its qualities within the Green Book itself?

8

Sources and Further Reading Anderson, Lisa. (1982). “Libya and

American Foreign Policy”. Middle East Journal, 36(4), Autumn, 516-534.

————— . (1983). “Qaddafi’s Islam”. In

John L. Esposito (Ed.), Voices of Resurgent Islam (pp. 134-149). New York: Oxford University Press.

Dyson-Hudson, Rada, & Dyson-Hudson,

Neville. (1980). “Nomadic Pastoralism”. Annual Review of Anthropology, 9, 15-61.

Goldschmidt, Walter. (1979). “A General

Model for Pastoral Social Systems”. In L’equipe ecologie et anthropologie des societes pastorales (Ed.), Pastoral Production and Society (pp. 15-28). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

McDermott, Anthony. (1973). “Qaddafi and

Libya”. The World Today, 29(9), September, 398-408.

9

Simons, Geoff. (1996). Libya: The Struggle for Survival. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Sullivan, Kimberly L. (2009). Muammar Al-

Qaddafi’s Libya. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books.

Vandewalle, Dirk. (1998). Libya since

Independence: Oil and State-Building. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Viorst, Milton. (1999). “The Colonel in His

Labyrinth”. Foreign Affairs, 78(2), March-April, 60-75.

Wright, John. (1981). Libya: A Modern History.

Beckenham, UK: Croom Helm Ltd.