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The Algerian State and the Challenge of Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Hugh Roberts
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Extract

THE PUBLIC REACTION OF WESTERN GOVERNMENTS AND commentators to the suspension of the electoral process in Algeria following President Chadli's resignation on 11 January was profoundly mixed. Relief at the fact that Algeria was not about to become ‘a second Iran’ very quickly gave way to disapproval of the manner in which this prospect had been conjured away at the last moment, as numerous leader writers in London and Paris and no doubt elsewhere indulged themselves in vigorous criticism of what they had not hesitated to call a ‘military coup’.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , 01 October 1992 , pp. 433 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1992

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References

1 Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Penguin edition, 1982, p. 84.

2 This article is a revised version of a talk given to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London on 25 February 1992.

3 Khadda, Nagetand Gaddant, Monique, ‘Mots et Gestes de la Revolte’, Algérie: Vers Létat Islamique?, Peuples Méditerranéens, 52–53, 07–12 1990 , pp. 19–24, p. 20.Google Scholar Zaïm fhel literally means ‘a leader with balls’; fhel means the male of a large animal, such as a stallion or a bull.

4 Khadda and Gaddant, ibid.

5 Khadda and Gaddant, ibid. El devis is a characteristic Algerian colloquial Arabic borrowing of the French word devices—foreign exchange, that is hard currency, as opposed to Algerian dinars.

6 For a fuller discussion of this point, see my article, ‘Radical Islamism and the Dilemma of Algerian Nationalism’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, April 1988, pp. 556–89.

7 See French press coverage since October 1988, passim, but also, for an academic exposítíon of the analogy, Pic, Patricía, ‘Essai de comparaison: perestroïka soviétique et infitah algéienne’, Les Cahiers dc l'Orient, No. 23, third quarter 1991, pp. 103–14Google Scholar.

8 For a detailed account of the conflicts over the role of the Party following the death of Boumedène, see my article ‘The Politics of Algerian Socialism’ in R. I. Lawless and Allan Findlay (eds), North Africa: Contemporary Politics and Economic Development, London, Croom Helm, 1984, pp. 5–49, pp. 26–41.

9 Leveau, Rémy, ‘L’Algérie en état de sège, Maghreb–Machrek, No. 133, 07—09 1991, pp. 92–99, p. 92.Google Scholar

10 This law defined the modalities of the application of Article 40 of the new constitution, and sought to rule out the formation of political parties based on religion, linguistic differences or regional identity. Its spirit was comprehensively ignored in the subsequent months when the authorities, on instructions from the presidency, recognized the FIS (a party based on religion) and the RCD and the FFS (both parties based on the Kabylia region and expressing in particular the aspirations of the Berberist movement).

11 Boudiaf is one of the so‐called ‘nine historic chiefs’ traditionally credited with founding the FLN in 1954. In fact, he more than any of the others was the moving spirit in organizing the breakaway from the nationalist Parti du Peuple Algérien of the nucleus of revolutionary activists which developed into the FLN. From November 1954 onwards he handled the liaisons between the internal guerrilla forces and the FLN's external delegation in Cairo, until he was arrested and imprisoned with Ahmed Ben Bella, Rabah Bitat, Hocine Ait Ahmed and Mostefa Lacheraf in October 1956. At Independence, he argued that the FLN had served its purpose and should be dissolved, in order that the Algerian people should be free to choose their government in democratic elections. At odds with the rest of the FLN, he lived very modestly in exile in Morocco from 1964 to 1992. His credentials as a revolutionary nationalist, a democrat and a man of integrity are therefore second to none. The idea that he is a mere puppet of the army betrays ignorance of the man and of Algerian politics in equal measure.

12 Ali Kafi was a member of the leadership of Wilaya II (the FLN's military region in north eastern Algeria) from 1955 to 1957 and commander of the Wilaya from 1957 to 1959. Thereafter he represented the FLN in various Middle Eastern capitals, a role he continued to play as ambassador of the independent state after 1962. Since 1989 he has been Secretary of the National Organization of War Veterans, the single most influential political lobby in Algeria.

13 Ali Haroun was a member of the leadership of the Fédération de France du FLN from 1957 to 1962 and of the CNRA from 1959 onwards. He refused all offers of ministerial portfolios after Independence, and in his legal practice gained a reputation as a defender of political detainees and a champion of human rights. He became the first ever Minister for Human Rights in the Arab world in the government of Sid Ahmed Ghozali in the summer of 1991.