ABSTRACT
The policy of privatization has been as controversial in Algeria as it has been elsewhere. Critics of privatization in Algeria have argued that it is the particular economic reform strategy of President Chadli Benjedid that must, all else, be held accountable for the country's unrest. Privatization is resented by many of the poor on economic grounds and reviled by various segments of the general population on ideological grounds. The political dimensions of the privatization process were apparent long before the outbreak of violence in 1988. The bottom line was, to borrow Chadli's words, "greater democratization of political action". The truth of democracy may lie in the uncertainty of electoral outcomes, yet uncertainty remains the greatest test for any political system. The relationship between democracy and authoritarianism, like the relationship between capitalism and socialism, is not simply a matter of systemic organization or institutional labeling.
