ABSTRACT
In Algeria the dramatic reversal of economic policy after Chadli Benjedid’s assumption of power gave way to a lingering crisis that was even more profound than in neighboring Tunisia. The April 1989 legislative elections in Tunisia, for example, in which no opposition party managed to win a single seat to Parliament, provided the first clear indication of the difficulties involved in moving away from a single-party system. The legitimacy of the state during the first period of state building in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria originated and was sustained by the dual roles it assumed after independence. Morocco’s first stage of state building had been characterized by conflictual relations between the monarchy and the political parties. With varying degrees of success, the first stage of economic development, in which the creation of a basic industrial structure had figured prominendy, had been completed in all countries. In the second stage the objectives for development subtly changed.
