Managing Instability in Algeria Elites and Political Change since 1995 [Paperback]

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 countrys 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.

Introduction  1. Elites and the Question of Transition in Algeria: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges  2. The Shaping of the Algerian Political System and Its Elites  3. The Politically Relevant Elite 1995-2004: Structures, Actors, Dynamics  4. The Emergence of a New Elite Generation: Recruitment Mechanisms and Elite Types  5. Factors Structuring Elite Corridors of Action  6. Prospects for Change

'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 Eastl“'