State and Military: Legitimacy and Government in Algeria

Since the very beginning of Algerian independence real power was in the hands of the military. When the economic crisis became obvious at the end of the 1980s the Islamist party FIS took over the revolutionary legitimacy of the independence struggle. The military coup d'etat of 1992, therefore, did not serve to save democracy but secured instead the privileges of a bureaucratic class. The opacity of responsibilities in terrorist attacks since 1993 is used for justifying the continuation of military rule. But this does not ease the dilemma of the West which, although it publicly claims to respect human rights & democracy, supports a regime that assures oil & gas deliveries without preventing the massacre of its population. Adapted from the source document.