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Purpose - The paper seeks to examine the evolution of, and assesses current trajectories of change in, the Algerian employee relations system. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews a range of literature on employee relations in Algeria and draws on the authors' research over the years in the field, including recent interviews with unions' representatives. Findings The paper provides evidence to suggest that the Algerian system of employee relations is a product of interactions and intersections between historical circumstances and different institutional arrangements and configurations to enable the state to hold together its power and control over unions. The paper shows how the preferential treatment of the UGTA by the government created an uneven playing field favouring the UGTA over independent unions. Research limitations/implications A major limitation of the paper is lack of strong empirical evidence. Practical implications The paper suggests that the single most important factor deterraining unions' ability to manoeuvre is the continuing support they obtain from the government and its institutions. The analysis provides practical suggestions for independent unions. Originality/value- To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper on recent developments in employee relations in Algeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "oil curse thesis" links a country's oil largesse inter alia to the durability of its authoritarian regime. And it contends that abundant oil revenues enable autocrats to stymie democratic transition by obviating taxation from citizens, buying off their political acquiescence, bolstering the repressive apparatus and thwarting the formation of civil society. This paper revisits the relevant literature by qualitatively testing its predictions on an in-depth case study of the Algerian regime in the face of the political crisis and riots of 2011. Going beyond the deterministic argument on "oil wealth-authoritarianism", it carefully examines the strategic interaction between country-specific factors and oil wealth and studies how the confluence of these factors has shaped the survival of the authoritarian regime in Algeria since 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination into the "Plan de Constantine," the French colonial administrative plan for Algeria during the 1950s instated by President Charles De Gaulle to develop the African nation. Discussion is offered outlining the vision and initiatives of the plan. Further details are addressed regarding the historical context of the government program, noting its existence as a late-Imperial action in the post-war era.

The article focuses on the the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the collective factors that allowed AQIM to succeed. It highlights the foundation of the concept of terrorism to further a political agenda during Algeria's war of independence with the French. It then explores the factors that influence the lack of trust between the nomadic Tuaregs and foreign forces. Moreover, it also discusses the civil war in Algeria and the emergence of modern terrorist groups. Lastly, the impact of the post-9/11 attack in the evolution of terrorism as a reaction to actual or implied American hegemonic ambitions is discussed.

Political violence in Algeria has often been accounted for only by recourse to caricatures of a society supposedly 'intensely violent' by nature, or else rationalised as the product of a peculiar political culture and national historical experience. Departing from both approaches, this article suggests that different occurrences of both state and non-state violence must be understood as particular, distinct moments in both the recomposition and breakdown of inherently conflictual social relations. While Algerian history (including colonial history) provides many examples of the non-violent negotiation of social and political tensions, the social production and experience of violence have been written into dominant historiographies and public culture in complex ways. These complexities of the successive ways in which different moments of violence have been encoded belie both theories of the inescapable reproduction of cyclical violence as a pattern of political behaviour, and less sophisticated, but enduring, clichés of 'Algerian savagery'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algeria's third plural presidential election caught the imagination of the Algerian electorate like no one has done before. Previously, the results were known in advance and elections served only to confer legitimacy on decisions made elsewhere, invariably by the military. This 2004 election seems to be more open. At least in theory, for the first time in Algeria's history, the winner of this election is not going to be the explicit choice of the military. In addition to the neutrality of the army, the autonomy of the former ruling party, the FLN and the unprecedented criticism of the President, the ingredients for an open and exciting election were in place. While most candidates engaged in negative campaigning, sometimes even at the expense of their political manifestos, the incumbent president stressed his achievements, particularly on the security front. 'National reconciliation', the way towards the establishment of further peace, dominated his political campaign and turned the election to a referendum on stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the transcript of the Sadat Forum held at Brookings Institution on September 10,1998 about Algeria's democratization. Transitions in Algeria from 1970 to 1995; Predominance and control of military institution over the Algerian state; Actions taken by the United States to help the country; Contributions of a free-press to the country's bid for democracy.

This article examines the consequences for political organisation of Algeria's sustained and bloody conflict. Women's right to public action has been fundamentally challenged in this virtual civil war, and they have been at the forefront of resistance to violence, in different forms of political action and at different levels of society. Religious fundamentalism raises important questions about the nature of the political and how it occupies public space, and behaviour in the household (particularly that of women) has become a matter of public struggle. Resistance to or organising against fundamentalism and violence in turn enters a debate about political rights. For these reasons, Algerian women's organisations probably present the most diverse aspects of Algerian associational life. Their experience has wide relevance because it is shared by women in other situations where religious fundamentalism combines with a patriarchal system to oppress them (Helie-Lucas, 1993). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with a political stalemate which paralysed Algeria's political life when the military intervened to cancel the results of the December 1991 election, the authorities have been searching for a way to return to the democratic process. General Zeroual, appointed President in January 1994, and his collaborators have introduced a series of political reforms aimed at establishing a working democratic system. Algeria and its rulers seem to have learned from the failure of the first democratic transition (1989-92). The creation of a second chamber in the parliament, changing the electoral law and the imposition of restraints on political parties were intended to avoid the mistakes made previously and have the potential of moving the country away from the political crisis it has experienced since January 1992. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article talks about dilemmas of development and democratization in the Arab World. It notes that the accentuation of cultural factors does not take into account the dynamics of nation-state building since independence while this process also places the weakness of civil society in a context. The emergence of a postcolonial state, strengthened by oil-related income, although not the only factor at work, offers the most useful angle for approaching the issues of political and economic liberalization in the Arab World. Before these issues are addressed at a descriptive level, it is necessary to make some remarks about concepts and the level of analysis. Thereafter, it describes processes of political and economic liberalization, with special reference to Egypt and Algeria.

The article recognizes the contribution of political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville to the study of the relationships between social organization and political institutions in Algeria. It states that de Tocqueville's ideas were oriented to choice and action, rather than to careful definition and systematic consistency. It also mentions that he had conducted research on the condemnation of slavery in the American South.