Although Libya and its current leader have been the subject of
numerous accounts, few have considered how the country's tumultuous
history, its institutional development, and its emergence as an oil
economy combined to create a state whose rulers ignored the notion
of modern statehood. International isolation and a legacy of
internal turmoil have destroyed or left undocumented much of what
researchers might seek to examine. Dirk Vandewalle supplies a
detailed analysis of Libya's political and economic development
since the country's independence in 1951, basing his account on
fieldwork in Libya, archival research in Tripoli, and personal
interviews with some of the country's top policymakers.
Vandewalle argues that Libya represents an extreme example of
what he calls a "distributive state," an oil-exporting country
where an attempt at state-building coincided with large inflows of
capital while political and economic institutions were in their
infancy. Libya's rulers eventually pursued policies that were
politically expedient but proved economically ruinous, and
disenfranchised local citizens. Distributive states, according to
Vandewalle, may appear capable of resisting economic and political
challenges, but they are ill prepared to implement policies that
make the state and its institutions relevant to their citizens.
Similar developments can be expected whenever local rulers do not
have to extract resources from their citizens to fund the building
of a modern state.
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