The Libyans Attitudes towards Democratic Transition during the Period from 2012 to 2014
Libya has witnessed a democratic transition process since the early months of 17th
February Revolution, 2011. However, after eight years, there is still a gap in the literature about
this topic. Thus, this study aims to fulfil a part of this gap by describing and analyzing the
Libyan attitudes towards the democratic the transition process in Libya post Kaddafi era during
the years, 2012-2014. Currently, the Libyans view themselves as participants in the democratic
process that Libya is enjoying since August 2011, when the declaration of the liberating of
Libyan was announced by the President ofthe Interim Transitional National Council “ITNC” in
Benghazi. The findings of this study demonstrate that the Libyans are no longer view
themselves as belonging to parochial or subjective political cultures; and therefore, the rate of
registration on the 7thof July 2012 election reached 93%, whereas the ratio of the actual voting
reached 65% of the total eligible voters. The negative attitudes towards Kaddafi’s regime have
changed into positive patterns after the victory of 7thFebruary Revolution. These positive
attitudes towards participation culture are spilled over towards the new political system as well
as its internal and external policies. Nevertheless, negative attitudes towards issues that threat
the national identity have been reported as the majority of the participants rejected federalism
as a political system for the new Libya. The findings also indicate that issues related to Amazigh
language, liberal democracy and forgiveness with Kaddafi’s supporters before the interimjustice takes place were also rejected by a large portion of the sample.
Keywords: ITNC, NPC, the Interim Constitutional Declaration, system attitudes, process
attitudes, policy attitudes.
Mustafa Abdalla A. Kashiem(6-2019)
publisher's website