Dalia Ghanem, Analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). MALCOLM H. KERR CARNEGIE CENTER
Three years after the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as President of the Republic and sixty years after the country’s independence, the Algerian government appears to be once again facing a repressive turn. Dalia Ghanem, analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies and author of Understanding the Persistence of Competitive Authoritarianism in Algeria (Palgrave Macmillan, untranslated), describes this authoritarian tropism.
How to characterize the regime in power in Algiers, three years after a popular uprising? You speak of “competitive authoritarianism”…
It is a mixture of elements of uncompromising authoritarianism and elements of democracy. There are elections, but they will never be transparent. There is a press, but it will never be free enough. There are political parties, but they can never threaten the Algerian regime.
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The latter never intended to democratize. This was also the case in 1988, when the multi-party system was introduced after deadly riots. This openness was limited, he had to adapt to survive. These are regimes with leaders wise enough to admit that sometimes their survival depends on their ability to open up.
In 2011, the authorities in Algiers understood very quickly that the waves of the “Arab Spring” were about to hit them, and they were very reactive. He had financial manna at his disposal: he distributed billions of dollars, he initiated some institutional reforms. women elected to parliament
They write that this regime rests on five pillars – army, cooptation of the opposition, fragmentation of civil society, revenues from hydrocarbons and repression – that have enabled it to resist and adapt. First there is the army…
Since the Revolutionary War, the army has had a stranglehold on politics. By President Houari Boumediene [1965-1978]military security is at the heart of the system. She rose to power and literally controlled every aspect of Algerian life. Then comes Chadli Bendjedid [1979-1992], who was portrayed as a civilian, although he was a pure product of that army. Then in 1992 came the rape of ballot box results. [interruption du processus électoral]with an army returning to center stage.
Apart from times of crisis, this army likes to stay in the background. Allegedly …
It’s an army that understands not to be in the spotlight for too long. During the 2019 crisis that led to the resignation of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika [1999-2019], the military staged too much – with the daily appearances of the chief of staff on television – before realizing they had to hand over the reins to a civilian. That is why they insisted that there should be a presidential election quickly. They don’t want to be blamed for the economic and social fiasco. It is an army that does not rule every day, but manages the country in terms of defence, security and foreign policy.
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