Jamahiriya

See also jamahiri -- Libyan Jamahiriya -- Universal Jamahiriya

The definition of Jamahiriya is: a self-governing masses society where all power, wealth and arms are in the hands of the people. This is achieved through Popular Congresses and People's Committees.

The word Jamahiriya was coined in 1977 to provide a new word to explain the status of Libya which moved from the era of the republics to the era of the masses, when the Libyan people started to exercise power directly.

Pronunciation: The word may be spelt differently in different languages, according to the phonetics of each language. For example, in German it may be: Djamahiria. Or in Hungarian: Dzsemehiríja. The sound of the word (pronunciation) using English phonetics is Ja-ma-hi-ree-ya, with "Ja" as in "jam", "ma" as in "max", "hi" as in "hit", and "ree" as in "read", and ending with "ya" as in "yard".

In Arabic, the word for republic is جمهورية (joumhouriya). The word republic came into being with the French revolution, to explain a new system of democracy: representative democracy, bringing about the era of the republics.

Some believe that there are similarities in the word Jamahiriya as two Arabic words (jama) meaning community or group and (houriya) meaning freedom. This theory is unverified and needs confirmation.

Google translation wrongly translates Jamahiriya into Arabic as Libya, in an apparent attempt to prevent the word from recognition. Jamahiriya in no way means Libya, its definition is as explained above.

Muammar Qaddafi was General Secretary of the General People's Congress of Libya from 1977 until 1979.

This system of democracy is also called direct democracy or participatory democracy.

On 2nd March 1977 the Sebha Declaration was made during convening of the General People's Congress, which gave a new name to the Libyan Arab Republic: The Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.