ABSTRACT
Political developments in Algeria since the mid to late 1990s may have not led down the path to democracy, but they presented a remarkable success story in the management of instability. The governing elite displayed a notable aptitude for adapting its strategies to the many challenges posed by an unstable international and domestic environment. It embarked on a limited political and economic liberalization process without undermining the very foundations of the existing system, and it managed to substitute or compensate for its lack of democratic legitimacy – at least to a certain degree – with historic legitimacy, distributive practices and by casting itself in the role of the savoir of the republic against the ‘Islamist theocratic’ and ‘terrorist’ threat. The success of the elite in upholding the existing order was in part due to specific international political and economic conjunctures. The events of 9/11 and the ensuing ‘war on terror’ proved a prime opportunity for core elites to internationally redeem themselves after a decade of (limited) isolation. Oil price hikes had a stabilizing effect in that they allowed core and second circle elites to uphold or even expand distributive networks. Moreover, external actors with political influence in Algeria, such as the United States and France – not least because of their interest in Algerian oil and gas – opted for continuity and support of the incumbent core elite and showed little willingness to push Algeria towards a renewed democratization process with an uncertain outcome.
