ABSTRACT
Algeria has been facing serious difficulties since the late 1980s. These began when the country experienced a mounting socio-economic crisis which culminated in October 1988 in violent riots and a brutal military repression. The causes of that crisis were numerous, but the most notable ones included the failing economic system that had been put in place in the 1960s and 1970s, the nature of the political system and external economic shocks. Following the repression of the riots of October 1988, the governing elite suddenly engaged the country in a liberalisation of the political system that ended one-party rule and opened the way to a variety of political organisations and unprecedented freedom of expression and association.
