The Post-Colonial State and Social Change in Libya

Abstract

This study investigates the state and social transformations after Libya's independence in 1951 by evaluating the structure and features of the Senussi monarchy and the regime that followed the military coup in 1969. The author makes clear that the regimes and ideologies that ruled successively in Libya changed according to changes in local economic, social, and cultural circumstances, and in line with changes to the surrounding regional and international context. The main reasons for the collapse of the Jamahiriya regime, he concludes, were hostility to institutions and the control of the security apparatus over the institutional structure. These two factors caused the alienation of the middle and lower classes, as well as the defection of many reformists, army officers, and diplomats, some of whom have become leaders of the current democratic uprising.