The people's congresses -- 350 basic congresses and a general congress whose chairman is nominally the head of state -- are intended primarily to surmount divisive tribal lines and to establish a "people's jamahiriya," a kind of general, egalitarian republic.
Having solved the "democratic problem" in his Green Book, Gaddafi goes on to tackle the "economic problem." For an idealist from the desert, the organization of labor into employers and employees is irreconcilable with the aims of the revolution -- and of Islam.
Yet Gaddafi is no Islamic fundamentalist. He is more of an Islamic reformer, who like many other leaders of the developing world was guided by socialism. His late, pseudo-socialist Islamic model of society has only survived on an ample oil income.
As journalists are generally not allowed into Libya, media coverage has concentrated on Gaddafi's foreign policy escapades. He wanted to export his revolution and to establish terror as a means of struggle for small states.
This policy brought suffering on thousands of families. In 1986, US President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi, allegedly to destroy the Libyan leader's terrorist infrastructure. In reality, the aim was to kill Gaddafi.
The plan failed, of course, encouraging the Libyan leader to continue with his foolhardy foreign policy. The bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, plunged Gaddafi into 10 years of isolation that only ended in April, when he handed over the Libyans suspected of planting the bomb.
So 30 years after his coup, Gaddafi is celebrating a unique anniversary in the Arab world and can hope to make people forget Libya's lost decade.
Western companies are already beating a path to Libya's door to secure a share of the contracts and investment the North African state is in a position to award. But no one really knows just what Libyans themselves think about their leader.
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