Managing Instability In Algeria

This book seeks to understand the relationship between elite dynamics and strategies and the lack of profound political change in Algeria after 1995, when the country's military rulers returned to electoral processes. The book uses evidence from extensive fieldwork to expose successful survival strategies of an opaque authoritarian elite in a changing domestic and international environment. The main focus is on the changing balance of power between different elite segments, the modes of generation change and the different emerging young elite types, constraints, obligations and opportunities arising from elite embeddings in clienteles networks and in specific social and economic structures.

This topical new book seeks to understand the relationship between elite dynamics and strategies and the lack of profound political change in Algeria after 1995, when the country's military rulers returned to electoral processes. Using evidence from extensive fieldwork, Isabelle Werenfels exposes successful survival strategies of an opaque authoritarian elite in a changing domestic and international environment. The main focus is on: * the changing balance of power between different elite segments * the modes of generation change and the different emerging young elite types * constraints, obligations and opportunities arising from elite embeddings in clienteles networks and in specific social and economic structures. Building rare evidence from fieldwork into a multidisciplinary analytical framework, this book presents a significant input to the more general literature on transition processes and is particularly relevant as the West pushes for democratic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa. Review: 'This is a superbly crafted study of its fragmented elite; it is as rigorous as the fluid subject matter allows... This book is a must read for students of comparative politics and political economy as well as Algeria specialists. It offers a thick, rich description of the contradictory values and practices that tend to transform rhetorical reformers into conservative rent-seekers.' - Clement M. Henry, Middle East Journal, Vol. 62, No. 1, Winter 2008