The Third International Theory (), also known as the Third Universal Theory and informally as Gaddafism, was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi on 15 April 1973 in his Zuwara speech, on which his government, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, was officially based. It combined elements of Arab nationalism, Islamism, Nasserism, anti-imperialism, Islamic socialism, left-wing populism, African nationalism, pan-Africanism, pan-Arabism, and direct democracy. Gaddafi further drew from Islamic fundamentalism; he opposed formal instruction in the meaning of the Qur'an as blasphemous and argued that Muslims had strayed too far from God and the Qur'an. However, Gaddafi's regime has been described as Islamist, rather than fundamentalist, for he opposed Salafism, and many Islamic fundamentalists were imprisoned during his rule.
It has similarities with the system of Yugoslav socialist self-management in Titoist Yugoslavia during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as developed by Edvard Kardelj. It was also inspired in part by the Little Red Book of Mao Zedong and the Three Worlds Theory.Harris 1986, p. 58. It was proposed by Gaddafi as an alternative to capitalism and Marxism–Leninism for Third World countries, based on the stated belief that both of these ideologies had been proven invalid.
The Higher Council for National Guidance was created to disseminate and implement this theory, and it found partial realization in Libya, a self-proclaimed utopian model state. The fall of Gaddafi and his assassination in 2011 led to the disestablishment of his system and its replacement by the National Transitional Council.
Background
Key provisions of the Third International Theory are outlined in The Green Book (published from 1976 to 1979). It is a system of views which criticizes European-style democracy and Soviet Marxism in detail.
Intellectual and political context
In the 1960s and 1970s, in the countries of the Arab-Muslim East, various theories of "national brands of socialism", named "Islamic socialism", became widespread. This socialism was based on the principles of nationalism, religion and equality, and its ideas inspired a number of revolutions, popular uprisings and coups in the Arab world. Similarly, in Libya, on 1 September 1969 a group of Libyan army officers belonging to the Movement of Free Officers, Unionists, and Socialists overthrew the monarchy and proclaimed the Libyan Arab Republic. The supreme power was temporarily relegated to the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), headed by 27-year-old Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The anti-imperialist orientation of the Libyan revolution manifested itself clearly in the first months of the new regime. On 7 October 1969, at the 24th Session of the UN General Assembly, the Permanent Representative of Libya announced its intention to eliminate all foreign bases on Libyan territory.
Following this, the Libyan leadership informed the ambassadors of the United States and Britain that it was terminating the respective agreements. Almost at the same time an offensive began against the position of foreign capital in the economy.
The first results and the nearest tasks of the Libyan revolution were fixed in a public statement on 11 December 1969, a Provisional Constitutional Declaration. Islam was declared the official state religion. It was proclaimed that one of the main goals of the revolution was the building of a form of socialism based on "religion, morality and patriotism". Gaddafi and his companions intended to achieve this through "social justice, high levels of production, the elimination of all forms of exploitation and the equitable distribution of national wealth".
The Revolutionary Command Council was to function as the centre of the political organization of society, with the right to appoint cabinet ministers, to declare war and enter into contracts, to issue decrees with the force of law, and to handle key aspects of internal affairs and foreign policy. Chairman of the IBS, Gaddafi was appointed head of the Libyan Arab Republic.
In 1973, Gaddafi organized the Arab Socialist Union, which became the sole legal political organization in the country. In 1977 the General People's Congress, representing numerous national committees, adopted a decree (the "Sabha Declaration") on the establishment of a "regime of people's power" (the so-called 'direct popular democracy') in Libya, and the country was renamed the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The Revolutionary Command Council was also renamed and transformed into the General Secretariat of the Congress. In practice, the Arab Socialist Union then merged with the apparatus of the General People's Congress. The people elected into the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress were Gaddafi (General Secretary) and four of his closest associates — Major Abdessalam Jalloud, and generals Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr, Mustafa al-Harrubi and Huveyldi al-Hmeydi.
Two years later, the five leaders resigned from public office and were replaced by professional managers. From then until his death, Gaddafi officially held the title of the Leader of the Libyan Revolution and the group of the five leaders is named "the Revolutionary Leadership". Furthermore, a hierarchy of Revolutionary Committees was established with the purpose of implementing the policies of the Revolutionary Leadership within the system of the People's Congresses.
Doctrine The official ideological doctrine is the Third International Theory, described in Gaddafi's "Green Book" (1976–1979). Copies of the "Green Book" were already on sale in Libyan bookstores in many languages prior to the revolution.
The book is a collection of quotes of the Libyan leader, divided into three parts and covering the following vital aspects of existence: Solving the problem of Democracy (People Power); Solving the problem of the economy (Socialism); The public aspect of the "Third International Theory."
People Power
The first part of the "Green Book" is "Solving the problem of democracy: The Authority of the People". This political aspect of the Third International Theory, published in January 1976, rejects traditional forms of democracy such as parliament, political parties, and referendums, and outlines the basic principles of direct popular democracy based on the people's congresses and people's committees. The book argues that representative democracy is in fact nothing but a kind of dictatorship.
According to the "Green Book", the winner in the struggle for power is always an instrument of government — an individual, party, class; and the loser is always the people, and thus, it is not true democracy. The political struggle often leads to the rise to power of an instrument of government which represents a minority, and that through legal democratic means. Thus, all existing political regimes falsify genuine democracy and are dictatorships.
Parliamentarism, according to Gaddafi, is a perverse solution to the problem of democracy. A Parliament can not speak on behalf of the people, because democracy means the rule of the people, not of those who act on its behalf. Methods of electing the parliament can not be considered democratic, because the masses become completely disconnected from the Members of Parliament. The MPs monopolize the power of the masses and the right to decide their business for them. Parliament, in fact, represents not the people, but the party that won the elections. In fact, the people are used by the political forces in the struggle for power. The system of elected parliaments is a demagogic system because votes can be bought and manipulated, that is, parliamentary representation is a fraud. In general, the theory of representative government is, Gaddafi argues, an outdated practice that was invented by philosophers and thinkers at the time when the common folk were ordered about like livestock by their rulers.
The party, according to the "Green Book", is a modern tool of dictatorial rule — it is the power of a part over the whole. Parties are established by groups of people to act in their interests, or to impose their views on the public and to establish their ideology on it. The number of parties in a system does not alter the substance of the matter. Moreover, the more numerous the parties are, the more intensive is the power struggle between them, which in turn undermines the programmes geared to benefit the entire society. The interests of society and of its development are sacrificed for the sake of the partisan struggle for power.
In addition, parties may be corrupt and can be bribed from the outside and inside. The 'opposition' is not an organ of control over the activities of the people of the ruling party, it only waits for the right moment to take the place of the ruling party at the trough of power. Control is in the hands of the party in power (through Parliament), and power in the hands of the party in control.
Gaddafi compares party and clan. In his view, in the struggle for power, the party is no different from a power struggle between tribes and clans. Both types of struggle are portrayed as having a negative and disintegrating effect on society.
The referendum is also described as a falsification of democracy. Voters can say only "yes" or "no." The theory states that everyone should be able to justify their desire and the cause of their approval or disapproval. Therefore, to be completely democratic, it is necessary to create such an instrument of government, which would be identical to the entire nation as a whole, rather than to a representative body acting on its behalf.
People's congresses Gaddafi offers to create a special hierarchical structure of people's congresses and committees, resulting in a system where "management becomes popular, control becomes popular, and the old definition of democracy as 'control of people over the government' is replaced by its new definition as 'the people's control over itself'."
"The only means of people's democracy are the people's congresses. Any other system of government is undemocratic. All existing world systems of government are undemocratic, if they do not adhere to this method of governance. People's congresses are the ultimate goal of the movement of peoples on the path to democracy. People's congresses and people's committees represent the end result of the peoples' struggle for democracy."
In the proposed Jamahiriya, the entire population is divided into People's Congresses, which elect the People's Committees, which in turn form the second round of the People's Congresses, which elect the State Committees, which fulfil the function of state administration. Issues considered at the People's Congresses are finally formulated each year at the General People's Congress. Accordingly, the outcomes and decisions of the General Congress are brought to the lower levels in the reverse order.
At the General People's Congress, which gathers together the governing bodies of the people's congresses, the people's committees, the trade unions and the professional associations, the most important public issues are discussed and the definitive legislative decisions are made.
In the first part of the "Green Book" Gaddafi also lays out his views on freedom of speech. According to him, "a human being, as an individual, should have the freedom of expression, and even if mad, s/he should have the right to freely express his/her madness." Man, as a legal entity, is also free to express themselves as such. In the first case the man represents only himself, in the second—only a group of individuals forming a legal entity.