ABSTRACT
Algeria cannot be discussed without mentioning the terrorism that has afflicted it for the past decade. Previous studies of political violence, particularly terrorism, underemphasise the importance of demographic factors. In his review of research on the consequences of population growth, Geoffrey McNicoll 1 notes a general neglect of demographic factors in social science fields that seek to explain social and economic change. Careful studies on the role that population growth plays in political destabilisation in Africa are even rarer due in large part to a lack of reliable data. 2 Likewise, most studies of Algeria’s recent political history acknowledge the role of population growth, but many explanations of the country’s civil strife primarily focus on political variables and actors. Using a combination of aggregate demographic and economic data and individual-level survey data, this essay seeks to address these gaps by examining the impact of demographics on Algeria’s economy and society and how the resulting changes are translated at various levels of the social system, including the level of individual behaviour, into conditions that contribute to violence.
