The jamāhīriyya was a unique political system in force in Libya from 1977 to 2011 under the rule of Colonel Muʿammar al-Qadhdhāfī (1942-2011). The state's official name during this period was Great Socialist Libyan Arab People's Jamāhīriyya (al-jamāhīriyya al-ʿarabiyya al-lībiyya al-shaʿbiyya al-ishtirākiyya al-ʿuẓmā) . The neologism al-jamāhīriyya (from al-jamāhīr , the masses) pertained to its alleged character as a self-administrating stateless society, that is, a total and direct democracy without any bureaucratic institutions. Influenced by contemporary revolutionary ideologies, such