ABSTRACT
This case study examines the French legacy of economic centralization, army dominance, and political violence in Algeria. Just as nineteenth- and twentieth-century France experienced political and economic instability involving difficult transitions from one regime to another, so has postindependence Algeria. The development of the oil industry has reinforced this trend. France faced stiff opposition to its rule, which it imposed through its army. Postindependence leaders have all had military backgrounds or close ties to the army. Given the tightly controlled elections and the deepening ethnic divisions between Algeria’s Arab and Berber-Tamazight citizens, political legitimacy remains tied to the thinning ranks of those who fought during the bitter war for independence. Successions are destabilizing and often violent. Because Algeria was an integral part of France during the colonial period and was administered through institutions in Paris, France left only a faint institutional imprint, although there was a strong intellectual influence.
