This chapter analyzes the re-configurations of the Algerian political system. It explains the (re)establishment of power alliances and traces power shifts through oil price fluctuations on the global market, laying out the concomitant instability of systems of co-option based on the distribution of rent. In times of power crises, the state class is prepared to make concessions, such as economic and political liberalizations. Since February 2019, however, an unprecedented mass social mobilization has been underway. The Hirak movement disrupted the order within the state class and forced President Bouteflika to step down, but the regime, under military leadership, tried to reconfigure the political system once again by eliminating old clans and striking new alliances. This is the story of a political system’s re-configurations that seek to sustain the old order by building new alliances.
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