Libya

J

Foreign Trade

Petroleum accounts for 95 percent of Libya’s export trade. Manufactured goods and food are the country’s chief imports. In 2000 exports totaled $13 billion, and imports, $4.7 billion. Principal trading partners for exports are Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Tunisia; chief partners for imports are Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.

K

Transportation

Good roads along the coast connect Tripoli with Tunis, Tunisia, and, through Banghāzī and Tobruk, with Alexandria, Egypt; another road connects Sabhā in the deep interior with the coastal roadway. Libyan Arab Airlines provides local and international flights. Several international airlines serve Tripoli and Banghāzī. Tripoli, Banghāzī, Tobruk, and Mişrātah are the main ports.

L

Communications

The postal and telecommunications systems of Libya are government owned and operated. The government also owns the newspapers and does not permit media opposition to government policies. Libya has 4 daily newspapers. Al-Fajr al-Jadid, which is published in Tripoli, is printed in an Arabic and an English edition.

V

Government

Libya is governed as a jamahiriya (“state of the masses”) under a constitution adopted in 1977 by the General People’s Congress (GPC), the national legislature established in 1976. The tenet behind this political arrangement is the Third Universal Theory, expounded by Muammar al-Qaddafi in his three-volume tract, The Green Book. This theory, which exhibits influences from socialism, Islamic political theory, and Libyan tribal practice, was designed as an alternative to both capitalist liberalism and communism. Although Qaddafi, who came to power in a military coup in 1969, is treated internationally as the Libyan head of state, he claims to have relinquished all formal power in favor of the GPC, retaining only an advisory role as the “Supreme Guide” of the Libyan revolution. In practice, however, he retains ultimate power. Delegates to the General People’s Congress are chosen by local governments, known as Basic People’s Congresses. Organizations known as Popular Committees are also important elements of the political scene, serving as vehicles to bring together political and policy interests outside the congresses, typically in workplaces.

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A

Local Government

Libya is divided into 26 municipalities and 1,500 communes, or Basic People’s Congresses. Much domestic policymaking has devolved from the central government to local authorities.

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