ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the developmental capacity of the Algerian state since independence. It analyses the evolution of faith-based movements in Algeria and then the deradicalization process, which started in the country in the early and mid-1990s. The chapter examines the historical evolution of Algeria’s Islamist movements, the country’s violent extremism and its deradicalization and reconciliation processes since the early 1990s. The new Algerian state emerged out of a bloody eight-year liberation war with colonial France between 1954 and 1962 during which more than one million Algerians were killed. Education and building human capital aside, incoherencies and irrationalities of state policies became apparent in the early 1970s. In urban areas, where the regime provided incentives for the young to migrate, there developed a shortage of housing, jobs and decent incomes. The labour market also remained rigid and lacked flexibility. It was in the 1980s however, that active Islamism grew most rapidly in Algeria.
