ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the nature of the political transformation in the Maghreb within the time-frame 1987-1998, identifies the specific issues relevant to each one of the five countries, and assesses the sociopolitical impact and the dividends of these changes on the development of the Maghreb region. While focusing on the internal situation of each one of the five Maghrebi states, the analysis places the current regional political liberalization reconfiguration within the context of the general changes and asks what the process of change reveals or conceals. Algeria was a French province, Mauritania a colony, and Morocco and Tunisia protectorates. The Algerian case dominates the North African picture. In contradistinction to the struggle in Algeria, Libya exhibits few demands for political change. In sum, Libya is the only country of the North African region where not even a partial democratization has been formally initiated. The Islamic Republic of Mauritania entered the uncharted waters of democratization in 1991.
