Algeria at Forty

We are here to celebrate an important decennial anniversary in the life of Algeria, but which one? Much of the current discourse on Algeria seems to be stuck in 1992, when the sudden democratization process started by the 1988 riots was snuffed out. But if a tenth anniversary were the source of our celebration, it would be—with mixed rejoicing—to note the resurgence of a state against the same type of economic pressures that triggered the collapse of a state in Yugoslavia at the same time and the collapse of a regime in Iran over a decade earlier. ¹ Rather than a watershed, 1992 marked the renewal of many of the characteristics of the previous three decades, characteristics that have continued over the past decade. So I would rather focus on a longer period, marked by Algeria’s fortieth birthday as an independent state, and examine the impact of four important persistent characteristics. These four characteristics are post-revolutionary elites, single party, centralized economy, and dialectical identities. In so doing, I also want to compare Algeria’s condition at 40 with that of other similar polities and societies at the same ‘age’, to the extent that such can be found. At 40, Algeria is undergoing a prolonged midlife crisis, to put it lightly. If midlife crisis suggests a dramatic change, one can say that Algeria has had its dramatic change and has lived through it.