ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Algeria. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities (PPP), life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Algeria. The nine-year-old insurgency by guerrillas fighting to establish an Islamic state in Algeria was overshadowed in 2001 by massive protests demanding democracy. Algeria pledged support for the US campaign against terrorism in the wake of September 11. Algerians' right to choose their government freely in democratic elections has never been honored. The country has effectively been under martial law since the cancellation of the 1992 polls. Estimates of the number of political prisoners are unreliable; some estimate the number to be several thousand, including suspected Islamist sympathizers and members of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
