A perverse symbiosis: the state, Islam and political dissent in contemporary Algeria

The changing relationship of Algerian Islamism to the Algerian state is the central articualting themes of this paper. It is the dialectical, almost (perversely) symbiotic relationship between the State and Islamist contestation in Algeria over the past two decades that is empahsised here. The political economy of post-colonial Algeria has given state authority – particularly the Army and the nationalised hydrocarbon sector – a pronounced patrimonial/clientelist character which has in turn shaped the form and content of Islam and political dissernt. The specific expression of such patrimonialism has certainly shifted over time: the revolutionary populism of the Boumediene years gave way to Chadli’s attempts at implementing a state-led neo-liberal revolution, which in turn has delivered a form of authoritarian market state over the past decade. Across each of these periods however, we find the valorisation of the Algerian state and its Army as the main or even sole source of legitimate authority, underwritten by these institutions’ origins in the foundational moment of the Algerian war of independence