The Green Book , Part III: The Social Basis of the Third Universal Theory

Overview
Part III of The Green Book sets out Muammar al-Gaddafi's prescriptions for organizing social life according to the Third Universal Theory. It treats social institutions and cultural norms as the foundation for political and economic arrangements outlined earlier in the work. The text frames social organization as a means of preserving communal cohesion, resisting foreign cultural influence, and realizing a society governed directly by its people.

Family and Gender Roles
The family is portrayed as the primary social unit and moral center. Emphasis is placed on preserving traditional family structures and responsibilities, with parents, particularly fathers, assigned a central role in authority and upbringing. At the same time, the text acknowledges a place for women in public life, endorsing education and participation in work while insisting that such roles should not undermine family integrity or traditional social hierarchies.

Education and Cultural Formation
Education is described as a communal responsibility aimed at practical skill formation, moral development, and loyalty to national and social values. Formal schooling is critiqued when it serves narrow state or party interests; curricula should instead reflect local needs, link learning to productive labor, and instill the ideological principles of direct popular governance. Cultural authenticity and resistance to foreign influence are recurrent themes, advocating an education that reinforces indigenous traditions and collective identity.

Tribal and National Identity
Tribal bonds and local community ties are treated as authentic sources of social solidarity that modern institutions should respect and build upon. At the same time, a national identity rooted in the Third Universal Theory is advanced as the integrative force that should transcend divisive clientelism or imported ideologies. The text argues for transforming existing tribal loyalties into instruments of popular governance rather than allowing them to remain sources of fragmentation.

Social Organization and Direct Participation
A major thrust is the replacement of representative and party-based institutions with direct popular mechanisms. Social life is expected to orient around Basic Popular Congresses and local committees that handle community affairs, social services, and local administration. These bodies are presented as the proper venues for collective decision-making, social planning, and resolving communal issues without intermediary elites or party structures.

Law, Justice, and Social Discipline
Law is depicted as a product of communal will and custom rather than a detached, professional judiciary or imposed statutory system. Emphasis falls on community-based adjudication, restorative justice, and the moral education of citizens to prevent delinquency. The text supports punitive measures against those judged to undermine social cohesion, while framing legal order as inseparable from social and moral norms endorsed by the people's institutions.

Social Ethics and Individual Responsibility
The individual is cast primarily as a member of the collective whose rights and duties are defined by social obligations. Individualism and consumerist tendencies are criticized for eroding solidarity, while virtues such as duty, labor, and communal loyalty are promoted. Cultural preservation, moral discipline, and participation in collective institutions are presented as the routes to social harmony and national strength.

Concluding Orientation
The overall social vision emphasizes communal structures, cultural continuity, and direct participation as necessary complements to the political and economic elements of the Third Universal Theory. Social policy is framed less as technocratic management and more as the cultivation of collective character and institutions that embody the theory's principles. The account combines appeals to tradition with proposals for reorganizing social life around participatory bodies and locally grounded education and justice systems.