“Democracy can only exist with the presence of the people and not in the presence of representatives of the people. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the “Mad dog of the Middle East,” said that quote. Baba Suleiman, Moosa, and many others were fighting for democracy. However, according to Gaddafi that was the type of Government Libya was already under. All the revolutionary men fighting with Baba were all for democracy so why would they be leading a revolution while their leader had the same ideas as them? Researching Gaddafi was a mystery alone. The wide spread of opinion and facts of what he actually did was mind-boggling. Finding legitimate information about such a famous person was never so difficult. Gaddafi was criticized and praised by people around the world and from his own county. He supported women’s rights, free public education, and he increased the overall economic growth by 10%. However, there are always two sides to a story, especially in politics. At first Gaddafi began to appear as a warm hearted caring man, but I was soon able to find the dark side to him that he would let out on anyone who got in his way. Gaddafi’s other side is certainly shown in the country of men and is seen as wrong or bizarre behavior by a minor collection of people. In the novel there is talk of hangings, government surveillance, public executions, corruption, and deportations. Most of these acts Gaddafi did enforce the reasons behind Hisham Matar putting them in the novel is logical.
In 1973 Gaddafi began a campaign called the “Popular Revolution.” This is called the popular revolution because it was what the people wanted and what Gaddafi wanted. He was going to restart the government and basically all of Libya. While doing this he banned the c...
... middle of paper ...
...ped lines, no alcohol, hangings, highly corrupt government, and killing people who get in your way. This was masking the fact that most of the country was behind what was going on and that the revolutionists were the only ones who knew the truth about their country. To understand that Libya was not aware of the information, Baba and his friends knew, were amazing to think about and really changed my perspective about the whole story. A man and his friends knew the truth about their country and did everything they could to get people to follow them. This is a true heroic story that does not end with a happy in the book Although the book did not have a fairy tale ending the more important aspect is that in real life Libya is now truly a free country.
The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.
Democracy may be the best foundation on which to build a society, but to glorify it
In America today, when the name of honor is often adulterated by glaring headlines proclaiming the guilt of an immoral politician or the fall of a disgraced executive, it is easy to forget that the country was founded for the pursuit of truth, for only in truth can people find real happiness. Thomas Jefferson famously included the pursuit happiness as an unalienable right in the Declaration of Independence, but in an intimate letter to William Roscoe, a British historian, Jefferson wrote, “This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.” In his flagship novel, All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren embraces the Founding Father’s principles with his characterization of both Willie Stark and Jack Burden. Warren’s novel is an American classic because it traces the lives of two lost men as each man follows his personalized compass pointing towards complete understanding. After elevating him to unprecedented heights, Willie’s interpretation of truth returns to drag him down to the Underworld. Only when Jack learns that not even Willie can be omnipotent does he stop trying to understand everything. Willie Stark and Jack Burden embody the essence of Thomas Jefferson’s words because, in a sense, they both attain freedom through their pursuit of truth.
This novel is a narrative novel, which means it is written from the Author’s point of view. The novel and all the opinions came from Margaret Atwood and this shows what her feelings towards it were and how she felt about this regime.
Gerken H., Fraga L.R., Fung A., Issacharoff S., Karlan P.S., Keyssar A., Overton S. (2006, September/October). Six ways to reform democracy. Retrieved from http:// http://bostonreview.net/BR31.5/gerken.php
Lastly Mills highlights how a truly democratic state can be achieved. There is a need for a public that acts a medium for true political change, skilled men who form the higher powers of the state and have no vested corporate interests, dependable parties that debate openly and lucidly the problems faced by the world and finally liberated institutions between the public and the elite that act as proponent for the public opinion.
In the 1970’s Iran, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a very centralized military state that maintained a close relationship with the USA. The Shah was notoriously out of touch with working class Iranians as he implemented many controversial economic policies against small business owners that he suspected involved profiteering. Also unrestricted economic expansions in Iran lead to huge government expenditure that became a serious problem when oil prices dropped in the mid 1970’s. This caused many huge government construction projects to halt and the economy to stall after many years of massive profit. Following this was high rates of inflation that affected Iranians buying power and living standards. (Afary, 2012) Under the Shah, political participation was not widely available for all Iranians and it was common for political opposition to be met with harassment, illegal detention, and even torture. These measures were implemented by the Iranian secret police knows as ‘SAVAK’. This totalitarian regime combined with the increasing modernisation of the country paved the way for revolution.
A revolution is a mass movement that intends to violently transform the old government into a new political system. The Iranian Revolution, which began in 1979 after years of climax, was an uprising against the Shah’s autocratic rule resulting in much religious and political change. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi made efforts to remove Islamic values and create a secular rule and “westernize” Iran through his White Revolution. In addition, his tight dictatorial rule and attempts at military expansion felt threatening to the people, who desired a fairer governmental rule immensely influenced by Islam. Afterwards, governmental affairs became extremely influenced by Islamic traditions and law which created changes religiously and politically for years to come. Although the Iranian Revolution was both a political and religious movement in that it resulted in major shifts in government structure from an autocracy to a republic and that Islamic beliefs were fought to be preserved, it was more a religious movement in that the primary goal of the people was to preserve traditional ideology and in that the government became a theocracy intertwined with religious laws and desires of the people.
In making this argument this essay seeks to five things. Firstly, to define democracy within the contemporary context offering the key characteristics of a modern re...
Anyone who has watched the news in the past few months has probably heard Qaddafi's name tossed around a couple of times and perhaps used in the same sentence as “ruthless dictator”. Yet one cannot help but wonder if Qaddafi was truly the bloodthirsty tyrant that the media painted him to be why are the Libyan people only rebelling now more than four decades after he came into power? Muammar al-Qaddafi came into power in 1969 as a young, popular, revolutionary leader who vowed to free Libya from the government corruption that was occurring under King Idris's rule. (Sullivan, 13) Qaddafi wanted a better life for all Libyans but he had his own views about what was and wasn't good for Libya. During next four decades, Qaddafi silenced political opposition and called the shots for Libya. The growing resentment towards Qaddafi came to a head on February 15, 2011 when protests sprang up all over Libya calling for an end to Qaddafi's absolute reign. The situation quickly escalated into a bloody civil war between Qaddafi's government and the rebel organization, which promises to bring democracy to Libya. Qaddafi's dictatorship has failed to be an effective form of government for Libya because his decisions do not represent the wishes and needs of the people. Democracy is the answer if the people of Libya do not want to keep paying for the mistakes of a single ruler.
At the level of ideological change, believes about the merits and demerits of democracy and its encumberent market structure, must first be rationalized. Thus, democracy is legitimized. Among the four elements, ideology is the most volatile, as change can occur practically overnight. However although ideology may change it does not guarantee the consolidation of democracy.
... result of a direct democracy, complications like getting every citizen to vote on every single issue, something close to impossible with modern populations that grow like grass in springtime. These changes have caused democracy to become intertwined with other forms of government, and while they have caused a deviation from pure democracy, they have allowed countless nations to function efficiently while maintaining the basic pillar of democracy: that ultimate authority and power is derived from the citizens.
When Colonel Gaddafi inherited power peacefully, it was a burdening task to transform an impoverished nation located on a barren desert which recently declared independence, to the wealthiest African country where citizens enjoyed exceptional rights and a true direct democracy, called Jahiliyya. Prior to the US-led bombing campaign in 2011, Libya had the highest Human Development Index, the lowest infant mortality and the highest life expectancy in all of Africa. Under his rule, he raised the literacy levels from a low 25% to an exceptional 87% in which 25% of those earned university degrees. He also established what is known in America as “Pursuit of property” as he considered a home for every person a natural human right, as stated in his
Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.
democracy is that is important to be open and not to think in the same mind set.
Democracy is a broad and far-reaching idea, and carries with it a specific set of relatively vague values. This becomes especially evident when attempts are made to transform the ever expansive interpretations of democracy into actual, tangible practice. An idea - however widely admired in theory - remains only as effective and representative as the mechanisms and persuasions in place to implement it into practice. How people interpret an idea and manipulate its indefinite principals - however self-serving at times or benevolent at others - will determine the subsequent outcomes.