ABSTRACT
The analysis of intra-elite developments, mechanisms of elite reproduction and emerging elite types has provided a number of insights into the relationship between elite dynamics and political system change in Algeria, or, more precisely, the absence of such change. Explanations for the absence of change have ranged from the extreme fragmentation of politically relevant elites and the core elite’s successful management of this fragmented political scene to reform-oriented attitudes and agendas being overridden by other considerations. Understanding the nature of these considerations as well as the reasons for fragmentation of the PRE beyond the core elite divide-andconquer strategy discussed earlier, however, requires going a step further and analysing elites in relationship to non-elites and to their larger social, cultural and economic context: in short, to study ‘elites in society’.
