The Transition Process in Africa: The Effects of Regime Change on Economic Performance in Libya

In 2011, a wind of change blew across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), this wind of change was the unprecedented revolutions that demanded for regime change in the region thus pushes for regime change. Libya, whose economy had been at an advanced stage of development compared to the other countries of the region was not left unaffected. Libyan citizens accepted regime change with high hopes of bettering their conditions, but years after the revolution, the situation in the country has not proven to be of a brighter future for the Libyan people who though presumed to be free as a result of the absence of a dictatorial leader like in the past, has yet plunged into chaos with its Human Development indicators being highly unpredictable following the country.s present situation. However, the transition in Libya is agured to be producing undesirble developmental failures. Thus due to the shortcoming of the change in regime in securing a serene environment for development, this thesis aims to research and provide answers to the question ¡±How has regime change affected economic development in Libya?.¡± Providing alternative approaches to establish a relationship between regime type and substantial development, this study analyses development in Libya both under the authoritarian regime and the present trasitional regime and comes to the conclusion that though the nature of a regime, be it democratic transitional or authoritarian does not permit us to predict if or not it will be developmental. Findings from this reseaerch reveals that stable autocratic regimes have however proven to be more development oriented than uncertain transitions resulting from violent regime change. It is important again to note the fact that though we cannot define between which regime type will be more developmental than the other, transitions to democracy is however difficult to sustain in low income countries.