Libya: Where Cyber-Democracy Reached Its Limits – How the Case of Libya Challenges the Idea of Cyber-Development

Abstract

Blessed and at the same time cursed by the availability and presence of natural resources (African fossil energies), Libya has always constituted to be of a particular interest for the West. Due to the largely underdeveloped and rudimentary Internet use, and with a barely existing shared identity that would contribute to a sense of nationality, the Libyan people were unprepared at the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011. Unlike the Tunisian counterpart and example, Libya does not have a strong diaspora in Europe that would show an attachment to Western values and commodities. In addition, the fact that the former authoritarian regime in Libya operated an anti-Western and nationalist policy, everything associated with the West was commonly being disregarded. Even if Libya’s authoritarian regime was in no way inferior to those in its Arab neighbors, the momentum and result of the Western intervention in 2011, is to be seen primarily as an indication that a sustainable democratic consolidation, to which a cyber-development and cyber-democracy should contribute to, is being seriously challenged. Therefore, this work attempts to show the drawbacks of cyber-democracy by using Libya as a negative example. It should be argued that cyber technology is only conducive to and supportive for democratic tendencies if this is also being wanted by the users (the users of democracy). What is necessary is to lead Libya out of its present misery that is being produced by two (if not even three) competing governments and by radical jihadist aspirations that are tearing apart and fragmenting the entire society. Finally, possible solutions for problem-solving will be explored, also being framed in various “thought experiments” (scenarios), also with regard to premises and principles of cyber-development and cyber-democracy.