Managing Instability in Algeria: Elites and Political Change since 1995

245 Pages·2007·1.05 MB·English

by  Isabelle Werenfels

Managing Instability in Algeria
Since 1989 Algeria has ridden a political rollercoaster, going from promising
democratization to military authoritarianism and civil war to limited political
opening. This new book seeks to understand the relationship between elite
dynamics and strategies and the lack of profound political change in Algeria
after 1995, when the country’s military rulers returned to electoral processes.
Using evidence from extensive fieldwork, Isabelle Werenfels exposes
successful survival strategies of an opaque authoritarian elite in a changing
domestic and international environment. The main focus is on:
The changing balance of power between different elite segments;
The modes of generation change and the different emerging young elite types;
Constraints, obligations and opportunities arising from elite embeddedness
in clientelist networks and in specific social and economic structures.
Werenfels concludes that existing changes in elite composition and reform-
oriented attitudes are unlikely to translate into political system change unless
they coincide with a number of external and internal factors.Even if change
came to Algeria it would most likely not result in Western-style democracy:
the rentier nature of the economy and the dominant socio-cultural practices
shaped partly by the current elite might simply produce similar political elites
and structures.
Building rare evidence from fieldwork into a multidisciplinary analytical
framework, this book presents a significant input to the more general literature
on transition processes and is particularly relevant as the West pushes for
democratic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
Isabelle Werenfels is a research associate at the German Institute for Inter-
national and Security Affairs (SWP), and has lectured at Freie Universität,
Berlin. Her recent publications in English and German deal with the question
of democratization and with Islamist movements in the Maghreb region.
History and Society in the Islamic World
Series editors: Anoushiravan Ehteshami, University of Durham, and George
Joffé, Centre for International Studies,Cambridge University
Contemporary events in the Islamic world dominate the headlines and
emphasize the crises of the Middle East and North Africa, yet the Islamic
World is far larger and more varied than we realize. Current affairs there too
mask the underlying trends and values that have, over time, created a fasci-
nating and complex world. This new series is intended to reveal that other
Islamic reality by looking at its history and society over the ages, as well as
at the contemporary scene. It will also reach far further afield, bringing in
Central Asia and the Far East as part of a cultural space sharing common
values and beliefs but manifesting a vast diversity of experience and social
order.
French Military Rule in Morocco
Colonialism and its consequences
Moshe Gershovich
Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco
David M Hart
North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean World
From the Almoravids to the Algerian War
Edited by Julia Clancy-Smith
The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture and History
The living Medina in the Maghrib
Edited by Susan Slyomovics
Tribalism and Rural Society in the Islamic World
David M Hart
Technology, Tradition and Survival
Aspects of material culture in the Middle East and Central Asia
Richard Tapper and Keith McLachlan
Lebanon
The politics of frustration– the failed coup of 1961
Adel Beshara
Britain and Morocco During the Embassy of John Drummond Hay, 1845–86
Khalid Ben Srhir
The Assassination of Jacques Lemaigre Dubreuil
AFrenchman between France and North Africa
William A. Hoisington Jr
Managing Instability in Algeria
Elites and political change since 1995
Isabelle Werenfels.

Managing Instability in Algeria
Elites and political change since 1995
Isabelle Werenfels
First published 2007
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group,aninforma business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
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©2007 Isabelle Werenfels
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book maybe reprinted or repro-
duced or utilised in anyformor byanyelectronic, mechanical, or other
means,nowknown or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing fromthe publishers.
British LibraryCataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Werenfels,Isabelle.
Managing Instability in Algeria: Elites and Political Change Since
1995 /Isabelle Werenfels.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-415-40344-3
1. Algeria–Politics and government–1990-I. Title.
DT295.6.W47 2007
965.05’4–dc22
2006024073
ISBN 0-203-96468-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978-0-415-40344-3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-96468-2 (ebk)
To Andreas

Contents
List of illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xii
Abbreviations xiv
I Introduction 1
1 Background to the study 1
2 Research interest and key questions 4
3 Main line of argument 5
4 Methods, sources and data 6
5 Plan of the study 8
II Elites and the question of transition in Algeria:
theoretical and methodological challenges 10
1 Viewing Algeria through the lens of transition theory 11
2 Elites in theory 17
3Developing a framework for analysis 21
III The shaping of the Algerian political system and its elites 32
1 The main pillars of the system 1962 to 1988 33
2 The political opening 1989 to 1991 40
3 The authoritarian backlash in 1992 44
IV The politically relevant elite 1995 to 2004: structures,
actors,dynamics 47
1 The political, economic, social and institutional setting 48
2 The core elite: increasingly divided 55
3 Thesecond circle of the elite: reproducing core elite divisions 62
4 The third circle of the elite: self-dynamics of fragmentation 68
5 Conclusion 77