Libya under Muammar Gaddafi

Libya under Muammar Gaddafi was a state ruled by Gaddafi from 1969 until his overthrow and death in 2011, combining personal authoritarian power, state-controlled oil wealth, and officially proclaimed popular rule.

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya: The official name of Libya from 1977 to 2011, describing its claimed system of rule by the masses. Its committees and congresses gave institutional form to Gaddafi’s theory of popular authority.
1969 Libyan coup d'état: The military coup that overthrew Libya’s King Idris on 1 September 1969. It brought Gaddafi and the Revolutionary Command Council to power.
1986 United States bombing of Libya: U.S. air strikes on Libyan targets on 15 April 1986, conducted in response to alleged Libyan support for terrorism. The bombing intensified Libya’s conflict with the United States and became a defining episode of the regime.
Representative democracy: A system of government in which citizens elect representatives to make political decisions on their behalf. Libya’s official rejection of parliamentary representation distinguished the Jamahiriya’s claims of direct rule.
Green Book: Muammar Gaddafi’s three-part political tract, published between 1975 and 1979, presenting his theory of direct popular rule. It supplied the ideological blueprint for the Jamahiriya’s political system.
Free Officers Movement (Libya): A group of Libyan military officers that organized the 1969 coup against King Idris. Its coup created the revolutionary government that Gaddafi came to dominate.
Lockerbie bombing: The 1988 destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. The investigation and sanctions over the bombing isolated Libya internationally for years.
Authoritarianism: A form of government that concentrates political power and restricts meaningful political competition and civil liberties. The regime’s actual concentration of power fits this broader political category.
People's Committees: Local and sectoral bodies in Gaddafi-era Libya that implemented policy and purported to exercise popular authority. They carried out administration while remaining subject to revolutionary oversight.
Idris of Libya: The first and only king of independent Libya, who ruled from 1951 until his overthrow in 1969. His monarchy was the political order the coup replaced.

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