Bulletin n. 2-3/2013
February 2014
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
  • Sawania Youssef, Pack Jason
    Libyan constitutionality and sovereignty post-Qadhafi: the Islamist, regionalist, and Amazigh challenges
    in Journal of North African Studies , Volume 18, Issue 4 ,  2013 ,  523-543
    Since the overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi, Libya's political and security institutions have suffered from a power vacuum. The interim governments' absence of ‘real power’ has been mirrored by their corresponding absence of ‘abstract authority’. Both dynamics are indicative of an ongoing struggle over what constitutes sovereign, legitimate authority in post-Qadhafi Libya. From the National Transitional Council's (NTC's) inception until its handover of power, it claimed to possess ‘temporary’ sovereign authority – sufficient to administer Libya and define the rules of the post-Qadhafi transitional phase. Throughout the protracted constitutional drafting process, the country has been ‘governed’ according to the Temporary Constitutional Declaration (TCD) issued by the NTC in August 2011. Amendments to – and popular contestation of – the TCD have constrained Libya's political evolution, impeded the constitutional drafting process, and impinged upon the legitimacy of the General National Congress (GNC)– the NTC's successor body. This article will illustrate how and why the TCD was contested by Islamists, federalists, and certain Berber groups. Our use of copious Arabic primary source material allows the views of these groups to be presented in their own words. The NTC's responses to its challengers reveal a distinct pattern: it attempted to incorporate Islamists into its framework, it appeased Cyrenaican federalists, and it ignored the grievances of Berber activists. The implications of this highly unbalanced strategy remain at the core of Libya's present instability and the GNC's inability to stand up against its myriad challengers.
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