The Green Book: Literature Review: Al-Kitab Al-Ahdar

Literature Review:
The Green Book In 1975, Muammar Gaddafi published al-Kitab al-Ahdar, The Green Book, which spelled out his political philosophy. It is considered a true reflection of the leadership style of the Libyan famous yet controversial leader. The book claimed that representative government, plebiscites, classes and political parties only foster dictatorship rather than democracy (Al Qaddafi, 1975). Due to this, it suggested a practical way of directly involving every individual in government, which is, the establishment of Peoples’ Conferences and Committees. The conferences and committees are made up of people within a particular locality who make decisions and select secretariats to execute their decisions. This meant that there should exist no parliament, ministers or any form of executive council. Rather, the people should directly discuss issues and supervise work.
Again, the book argued that capitalism is exploitative as factors of production accumulate and expand in the hands of a few. In making his argument, Gaddafi observed that owners of
Gaddafi assumed power through a coup d’état on September 1, 1969, against King Idris. He was known as a “man of the people”. He made significant reforms that led to a boost in production and increased revenue from oil by about one billion dollars. The article observed that Gaddafi’s style of ruling was a mix of Islam, socialism, direct democracy and nationalism (Totman & Hardy, 2015). Revenue generated from production was shared among Libyans and basic needs such as housing, education and health care were provided to citizens. Gaddafi discouraged the formation of political parties thus, removed any form of a challenge of power to him. In this case, Gaddafi, according to the article, was autocratic and due to this his leaders feared to inform him of any policy failure. Gaddafi died on October 20, 2011, leaving a huge power vacuum in