Sommaire • The Logic of the Regime • The Turn Toward Competition • Three Oppositions Texte intégral Democratization is the order of the day in the Third World, but aside from certain Latin American countries where it seems to have succeeded, it is everywhere running into difficulties. These challenges need to be analyzed in relation to the history of each country, taking into account specific political, cultural, and ideological circumstances. There is assuredly no universal model of democratic transition that one can recommend to all Third World countries, which is why we must evaluate obstacles to democratization on a case-bycase basis. Algeria is an interesting case precisely because in February 1989, just months after the October 1988 riots that cost nearly a thousand lives, the ruling National liberation Front (FLN) embarked on a series of reforms, changing the Constitution to allow multipartism and alternation in power by means of elections. Yet the legalization of multipartism mainly benefited the Islamists organized into the Islamic Salvation Front (F1S), which carried both the June 1990 local elections and the first round of the December 1991 national legislative races. The military suspended the process and nullified the first-round results in January 1992. Next, it forced President Chadli Benjedid to resign. Since then, Algeria has plunged into murderous strife that already has claimed more than 60,000 lives.[1] In January 1995, six groups (including the three major contenders-the FLN, the FIS, and the Socialist Forces Front or FFS) met in Rome to sign a pact aimed at ending the crisis.[2] The military rejected this Rome Platform and ordered a presidential election for November 1995. This vote, which capped the first contested presidential election since Algeria gained its independence from France in 1962, went ahead as scheduled on November 16. Even though the principal opposition parties (most notably the FIS and the FFS) refused to participate, the balloting raised high expectations among voters, who hoped that incumbent president Liamine Zeroual (a retired general and the army's designated candidate) would emerge with strengthened legitimacy and be able to make the military accept a political solution similar to the one outlined in the Rome Platform.
This article addresses democratic construction in Islamic societies throughout the Algerian experience. Its main conclusions can be summarized as follows. First, in all Muslim societies, there exists an Islamicist utopia that stands as an obstacle not only to democracy but also to political modernity. Until now, this utopia has been contained only by repression that finally impedes the democratization. Second, Islam presents itself as a public religion that participates in the legitimization of political power. The democratic ideology, however, is compatible with religion to the extent that it is lived as a private concern. Finally, the Islamicist utopia and the public aspect of Islam aim at maintaining society's communal structures. They refuse to make the singularity of the political arena independent and reject differentiation through politics within a society that claims to be fraternal.
• The influence of the army on the political system • The Islamist movement: a contradictory product of modernity o The people's protest; a modern pattern of political behavior o Content of the Islamist doom • The ideological limits of the Islamist movement o The notion of sovereignty o The notion of power as a vacant seat • The democratization of institutions and the liberalization of society Texte intégral The majority of political scientists studying democratization in the Third World avoid Muslim countries due to the difficulty posed by Islam religion which is intricately linked to politics. Indeed, analysis of the relationship between Islam and democracy is only speculative when separated from historical experience. As a religion, Islam does not take sides for or against democracy. The importance for this discussion is the human interpretation of religion in relation to political conflicts. I will deal with the issue of Islam and democracy throughout the Algerian experience from this perspective. The bid for democratization made by Algeria between 1989 and 1992 is of interest, for it sought to combine two features. The country was (a) trying to free itself from an authoritarian regime, while (b) remaining Muslim at the same time.[1] Following violent riots in October 1988, Algeria adopted a multiparty system, and in February 1989, a constitution institutionalizing the contest for power came into force. As a result of this constitution, some sixty political parties emerged; one of these, however, demonstrated an imposing strength at once-both for the number of its militants, and for the favorable response it met on the part of the working classes. Indeed, in June 1990, the Islamic Salvation Front (ISF) swept the local elections and won control of 55 per cent of the local councils, and was in the lead following the first round of voting in the general election of December 1991. The army responded by canceling the second ballot, thus putting an end to the process of democratization, which had only lasted three years. The justification invoked by the army was that elections should not serve the purposes of a party that threatened democracy. Since that time, Algeria has sunk into violence, with around 60,000 deaths between January 1992 and January 1996. In this chapter, I shall examine why democratization failed in Algeria, and I shall explore the relationship between democracy and the political dimension of Islam by emphasizing that the Islamist movement is a contradictory product of modernity and that it meets ideological limits impeding the construction of a modern state, and that, nevertheless, democracy is possible in the Islamic countries because democratization of institutions and liberalization of society are two historical processes and their rhythms of evolution are different.
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