Algeria: Cosmetic Change or Actual Reform? Actuelles de l'Ifri, July, 2012
Algeria has emerged as something of an “exception” across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and while the recent elections have been marred by widespread allegations of fraud, the results have effectively consolidated the regime’s grip on power thus ensuring its complete monopoly over the country’s reform process.
Spared from the revolutionary waves that enveloped much of the MENA region since early 2011, the Algerian government has gone to great lengths to promote an image of the country as an ‘island of stability’ in a region experiencing deep social and political change. Meant primarily for international consumption, the latest manifestation of this trend is given by the country’s recent parliamentary elections held on May 10, 2012. Hailed by the government as Algeria’s “freest ever”, the vote was meant to restore a semblance of popular legitimacy to the political process given that the new parliament is expected to enact a series of constitutional reforms promised by the executive in April 2011. Described as a “test of the country’s credibility”2 by Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the election results confounded many as the country’s ruling party garnered a solid majority of seats in Algeria’s parliament thus bucking a region-wide trend that saw Islamist parties win elections across North Africa since the advent of the Arab Spring. In light of these events Algeria has emerged as something of an ‘exception’ across the MENA region, and while the recent elections have been marred by widespread allegations of fraud, the results have effectively consolidated the regime’s grip on power thus ensuring its complete monopoly over the country’s reform process. Bouteflika’s much vaunted promises of reform, unveiled in the wake of the Arab Spring and ostensibly aimed at “strengthening democracy” in the country, have been described by many within Algeria as yet another ploy designed to ensure regime continuity while giving the international community the perception that the government is engaging in a gradual process of political reform. Algeria’s opposition parties, many of which have challenged the election results and subsequently boycotted the opening session of parliament, hold that these reforms will at best result in a series of cosmetic changes that cannot hope to challenge the entrenched interests of those political and military elites who have governed Algeria – often from behind the scenes – since 1962.
Over a year since the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the government’s promises of political reform have yet to be implemented by Algeria’s ruling elites. While stability has thus far prevailed, Algeria’s profound imbalances in the social, political and economic realms seriously call into question the future sustainability of the Algerian regime. By analyzing the Algerian government’s promises of reform and the country’s recent parliamentary elections, the following research address the thesis of a so-called ‘Algerian exception’ and casts doubt over the regime’s genuine intentions for reform.