Linkage, leverage and organisational power: Algeria and the Maghreb Spring

Abstract

As Abdelaziz Bouteflika begins his fourth term as Algeria’s president, questions persist over his regime’s survival. Why has it endured while those of Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Libya’s Qaddafi have not? What has Bouteflika done differently? What sets Algeria apart? The aim of this paper is to address these questions by using Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way’s (Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) celebrated model for explaining democratisation to chart and examine Algeria’s links to European and North American countries, the amount of leverage Western governments have over Algiers, and the Bouteflika regime’s organisational strength. The paper concludes that Europe and North America have little appetite and only limited means to press Algeria to democratise and that the regime possesses strong coercive capabilities. Together, these factors have helped ensure Bouteflika’s survival.