Gov 365N/MES 323K
We are moving now to the empirical part of the course, to examine the various types of regime at work, their economic reforms - strengths and weaknesses. The course syllabus outlines the topics.
Questions for Class 15 and 16: March 30 and April 1, 2010
1. Review: what differentiates "bunker" from other types of political regimes found in the MENA and elsewhere in the developing world? Weak state, little autonomy from social forces, military predominance, single party system....low CIM, weak private sector.
2. In what senses does Algeria exaggerate tendencies found in other Arab countries? Look first at its colonial situation, the destruction of social intermediaries and indigenous culture, and the wholesale rentierism after independence - when over 90% of the million French settlers left the country in the summer of 1962. Conmpare Algeria with Tunisia (which ended up a bully) and Morocco (a monarchy). 1) years of colonialism and its timing, 2) numbers of "French" settlers, 3) colonial property, 4) policies toward old elites, 5) new indigenous French educated elites, 6) industry and economic development, 7) pattern of conflict between colonizer and colonized..
3. What precisely has been the role of the military before and since independence. Recall the building up of a semi-professional army on the frontiers of French Algeria, in Tunisia and Morocco, following by its consolidation of power under Boumediene inside Algeria. Has Algeria been a military regime? In what sense? Civilian vs military institutions. Look at the relative size of the military budget.
4. The impact of oil on the political economy. I do not wish to minimize this impact even if I resist the predestination literature about rentier petrostates (or why they are damned to economic instability and political authoritarianism). 1974 planning exercises! 1986 disasters. 1988 riots.
5. The Hamrouche reforms 1989-1991. Was it possible for Algeria simultaneously to engage in democratization and economic reform?
6. On the other side of this question, after 1993, was economic stabilization possible without political violence?
7. The problem of corruption: military clans and mafias. Compare the situation described by Boumediene's economic czar, Belaid Abdesselam, in the 1970s with the post 1994 situation, when foreign trade was "liberalized."
8. Algeria's phantom private sector: the story of Khalifa Airlines and Khalifa Bank.