Algeria Modern: From Opacity to Complexity
Luis Martinez and Rasmus Alenius Boserup
Abstract
For decades, Algeria has been depicted as an inaccessible, opaque, rentier state and under the control of secret intelligence agencies and inaccessible “cartels” and “clans”. While that analysis is partly true, this book contends that the analytical emphasis on opacity risks missing how much the country has changed since the 1990s: the new transparency of the interest groups that govern the country; the competing notions of economic development within key financial institutions; the impact of non-revolutionary contentious politics; the micro-politics of the changing attitudes of the country’s ... More
For decades, Algeria has been depicted as an inaccessible, opaque, rentier state and under the control of secret intelligence agencies and inaccessible “cartels” and “clans”. While that analysis is partly true, this book contends that the analytical emphasis on opacity risks missing how much the country has changed since the 1990s: the new transparency of the interest groups that govern the country; the competing notions of economic development within key financial institutions; the impact of non-revolutionary contentious politics; the micro-politics of the changing attitudes of the country’s urban youth; the growth of moderate Islamist party politics; the changing notions of security held by the armed forces; and the dislocation of rebellion towards the South. Across ten chapters, the book demonstrates that Algeria under Abdelaziz Bouteflika remains complex and challenging to understand, but that it is no longer opaque and inaccessible.
Keywords:
Algeria,
Abdelaziz Bouteflika,
Contentious politics,
Rentier state,
Secret intelligence services,
Political opacity,
Urban youth,
Islamism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190491536 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190491536.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Luis Martinez, editor
CERI/Sciences Po
Rasmus Alenius Boserup, editor
Danish Institute for International Studies
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