ECONOMY OF LIBYA

Muammar Gaddafi's Dictatorship and its Impact on Libyan Economy

Muammar Gaddafi's Dictatorship and its Impact on Libyan Economy

Introduction

The Libyan economy is primarily reliant on the revenues from petroleum sector that to some extent contributes to all earning of the country through exports and half of the GDP. The revenues from petroleum sector was high compare to the population and size of the country, which makes Libya a country having highest rate of per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the continent of Africa. The economy of Libya has witnessed high and low period during the year of Muammar Gaddafi, due to the fluctuation in international oil prices. However, since the year of 2000 the GDP growth rate of the country was recorded favorable for the country, with a projected growth of 10.6 per cent by the year of 2010 (Salisbury, 2013). In context of Libyan economy, this study aims to discuss the economy of Libya during the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Muammar Gaddafi's Dictatorship and Economy of Libya

The real name of Muammar Gaddafi is Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi who was born in 1942 and died in 2011. Gaddafi generally known as Colonel Gaddafi was a politician, revolutionary and political theorist. Colonel Gaddafi ruled Libyan Arab Republic during the years of 1969 to 1977 followed by serving as the Brother Leader during the year of 1977 to 2011 of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (MartiÌnez, 2007). During his tenure as the leader of the country he nationalizes most of the businesses and industries operating in the country. Mr. Gaddafi has devised his own ideology and in Arab world he was known politically as Arab socialist and Arab nationalist. He first of all proposes Third International Theory and later adopted the approach of Africanism. He served as the Chairperson of the African Union during the years of 2009-2010.

Gaddafi's time in power has been marked by several controversies and internationally acclaimed incidents. Most conspicuous was the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin in 1986 and the bombing of Pan American flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988, and the bombing of UTA flight 772 in 1989 in Niger. These events placed the Libyan regime under scrutiny by the developed countries and in 1986 United States, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan initiated the bombing campaign against Libya. The campaign which was called "Operation Eldorado Canyon" left 60 people dead including 15 civilians (Sullivan, 2009).

Due to the strange behavior of Colonel Gaddafi's cooperation with other leaders has been difficult. The Libyan government has been controlled without a clear overall goals and direction. Moreover, laws and regulations have been created and exchanged overnight everything under dictator Gaddafi's interests and whims (St John, 2008). To the outside world particularly in the U.S. and the EU, let the situation continue as long as some forty years can be explained by the economic interests of the big oil discoveries resulted (John, 2008).

Due to such actions from Colonel Gaddafi along with the initiation of nuclear enrichment programs, ...