Throughout my research I've become kind of surprised with how rational of an actor Gadhafi really was. His policies often failed due to his blindness on how his ideologies limited him, but there were times were he was very effective in his governance and as a rational decision maker.
This can be seen in the following excerpt from my paper:
Even though Gadhafi was eventually overthrown, he was able to keep power for such a long time precisely because he understood the different power divisions in Libya and was able to play them to his advantage."From the very beginning of his rule, Gadhafi understood the significance and influence of the tribes in his country. Shortly after taking power, he redrew the administrative boundaries of Libya (which represented tribal boundaries). By redrawing these boundaries, he was able to increase the holdings of the small tribes that supported him. This can be seen as a version of gerrymandering; Gadhafi style."
So even though Gaddafi was blind to anything but his own ideology and failed miserably with several of his plans, he knew how to 'play' people to stay in power long enough? Charismatic wasn't he?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting insight on Gadhafi. You don't stay in power for 40+ years unless you know how to pull the "strings". Gerrymandering is a great way to describe it.
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