Parochialism in Libyan Political Culture: understanding the authoritarian tendencies in Libyan Political Culture and their role in the failure of the 2011 revolution

Abstract

Following four decades of authoritarian rule under the Gaddafi regime, and a decade marked by trends of fragmented rule, violence, chaos and instability, Libya’s political culture undoubtedly suffered the negative implications of a plagued political atmosphere. This paper explores the role that the political culture of Libya plays in the peacebuilding processes and post-revolutionary reconstruction following the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime, as well as examines the damage caused to it by the 2011 NATO-led military intervention. Apart from the frequently examined factors of security paradigms, oil and state rentierism, this paper focuses on exposing how the long acclimatization to authoritarian rule, the centralization of the state under Gaddafi, the engineering of a unique Jamahiriyya governance system, the interactive dynamics of localized systems of legitimacy, among other aspects have shaped the Libyan civic and political cultures into parochial ones. Such exploration enables a better understanding of the reasons behind Libya’s inability to undergo sound processes of peacebuilding and post-revolutionary reconstruction.