Understanding Arabs by Margaret K. Nydell

Author:Margaret K. Nydell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus

Algeria

Algeria is a constitutional republic with a democratically elected government, although the military is very influential. Since the early 1990s, there has been a shift from a state capitalist to a free-market economy. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, first elected in 1999, was re-elected for his fourth term in April 2014, although he is in failing health. There are more than forty political parties (which must be approved by the Ministry of Interior). The president’s role is limited, and there is a constant process of bargaining and factionalism. In June 2014, one of the largest gatherings of the Algerian opposition took place; the goal was to move Algeria from a military-based regime to a real democracy.1

Algeria is the world’s eighth largest producer of liquefied natural gas, and the largest gas producer in Africa. Gas and oil provide 98 percent of the national income. Hydrocarbons have long been the backbone of the economy, accounting for roughly 60 percent of budget revenues, 25 percent of GDP, and over 95 percent of export earnings. Algeria has the tenth-largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is the sixth-largest gas exporter. It ranks 16th in oil reserves.2 It also has income from mining and agriculture.

Algeria experienced a devastating civil war, starting in 1991, between the government and Islamist activists, the largest group being the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The war began after the government canceled elections in 1992, when FIS was projected to win. Guerrilla warfare began, and throughout the 1990s Algeria experienced a rising cycle of violent attacks, many of them random, many in villages, to the point that 300 to 400 people were killed each week. Ultimately the figure reached about 150,000.3 This was met with severe government retaliation, and FIS was banned. The population is still polarized between secular and Islamic groups, radicals and moderates.

Algeria is immense, the largest country in Africa and the Arab world, but 85 percent of it is in the Sahara Desert region, and only 3 percent is suitable for agriculture, along the temperate northern coast. The population is 39 million, with a population growth of 1.61 percent. Ninety-one percent of the people live along the coast. Twenty-four percent of the population is under age 15, 70 percent under age 30, and there is a desperate housing shortage. Schools operate in shifts (attendance doubled between 1999 and 2015),4 and healthcare facilities are overburdened. Education is free and compulsory to age 16, and the literacy rate is 80 percent and climbing.

Because the unemployment rate is high, about 2 million Algerians work abroad, mostly in France and Spain. Many are menial workers, but there is also a brain drain as the educated people leave.

Partly because of rapid population growth, the people remain poor; 35 percent live below the poverty line.5 The country faces social problems such as rapid urban migration and unemployment. The unemployment rate increased to 10.50 percent in the third quarter of 2016, up from 9.90 percent in the second quarter of 2016. It averaged 14.42 percent from 1999 until 2016, reaching an all-time high of 29.

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