The model that was created in reality was an ultra-hierarchical pyramid – with the Gaddafi family and close allies at the top wielding power unchecked, protected by a brutal security apparatus. In the parallel world of the Green Book, the system is called a Jamahiriyya – a neologism that plays on the Arabic word for a republic, Jumhuriyya, implying “rule by the masses”. So the long-suffering Libyan masses were dragooned into attending popular congresses vested with no power, authority or budgets, with the knowledge that anyone who spoke out of turn and criticised the regime could be carted off to prison.
