ABSTRACT
Both Islamism and secularism have been legitimized by the 1989 Constitution's consecration of political pluralism, but both Islamists and securalists seriously question the legitimacy of the prevailing political regime. Islamic fundamentalism and feminism may be considered as pioneer movements in Algeria's political democratization. Notwithstanding the classical postulates put forward by modernization theory for the advent of democracy in new nation-states or developing areas, the political dispute in Algeria between the democrats, especially the feminists, and Islamic fundamentalists is opening a totally new era in the long and fascinating saga of the Islamic revival. The chapter analyzes the different assertions and the view of modernity and democracy to which they all claim to aspire. Later in October 1988, for the first time in Algeria's postindependence history, citizens challenged an omnipotent state that had for twenty-seven years simultaneously denied its people participation in the democratic process and decried citizens' lack of "maturity" in adjusting to democracy.
