Elections and the bureaucratic management of plurality in Algeria

Abstract

This chapter examines elections in Algeria as a democratic technology of power aiming to discipline and integrate a threatening population in the structures of power under the control of bureaucratic-military apparatuses. It presents the problem inherent to popular consultations, as they are seen as potential moments of upheaval threatening to jeopardize the country’s economic and political development, and a necessity to produce legitimacy at the local and international levels. Moreover, elections also allow for the management of political parties and the making of the modern Algerian subject. Through clientelism or the promotion of female participation, the state apparatus can thus integrate various political actors and shape their behaviour. Yet this bureaucratic management of plurality results in forms of coercion and resistance that illustrate the tensions arising from any disciplinary project. As elections are met with calls for boycott and low turnout, state apparatuses struggle to shape “credible” electoral results and “responsible” forms of participation.