Algeria : riots, but no spring

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the ‘Algerian exception’. Unlike those in other countries in the MENA region, riots in Algeria in 2011 did not escalate into a nation-wide revolutionary movement. Much of the literature on this counter-intuitive case focuses on the role of the civil war that plagued Algeria between 1992 and 2002, and a number of studies highlight the role of the state, but these fail to underline the interaction between the ‘national’ or ‘unit’ level of analysis in a direct and interactive relationship with the ‘international’ or ‘systemic’ level of analysis. This dissertation seeks to explore the Algerian exception within an IPE perspective, with emphasis on the interaction between various levels of analysis. How did the state prevent the onset of revolutionary contagion in 2011? How were its actions connected to the systemic context? Methodologically, the question is analysed qualitatively and in two complementary ways: through documentary analysis, and through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews conducted with Algerian nationals. The case study reveals the great significance of rentier dynamics and the purchase of social peace in the ‘Algerian exception’, which, this dissertation argues, is primarily explicable in terms of rentier governance and the primacy of material forces in social change. Algerian rentier state was able to survive the Arab Spring onslaught in 2011 through the liberal distribution of rents. Although rentier governance has been managed to preserve the Algerian political system in the short-term it remains to be seen whether short-term survival will translate into viable long-term stability for state and society.