The persistence of authoritarianism as a source of radicalization in North Africa

Abstract

September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks across the globe have led to an increased emphasis on security issues among political leaders globally. While this preoccupation with security has not led to the abandonment of democracy promotion efforts, there is no doubt that initiatives that have the demise of authoritarianism as their core objective, have become less of a priority in recent years, with spending on projects seemingly unrelated to security issues and the ‘war on terror’ declining, and pressure on heads of state to embark on democratization processes weakening. This article contends that the relieving of pressure on heads of state to introduce democratic reforms is detrimental to the desired goal of increased security, given that the radicalization of Islamists is closely related to the prevalence of authoritarianism. In short, it is argued that there is reason to believe that the West's tendency to allow violations of basic democratic principles, and failing to employ genuine pressure for regime change in the various MENA states, which are actively partaking in the ‘war on terror’ on the side of the US, is counterproductive in the longer run. While it is impossible to predict when terrorism committed by radicalized Islamists will end, and it is almost certain that terrorist attacks will recur in the future and that we have to learn to live with the risks, it is possible however to do something about the scale and frequency of such incidents. This article argues that through positive democracy promotion resulting in real democratization, it is indeed possible to obtain increased security.

The European Union's counter-terrorism policy towards the Maghreb: trapped between democratisation, economic interests and the fear of destabilisation

“…The lack of political and economic development is keenly felt among youths. This malaise drives them to join extremist groups, to escape these circumstances by emigrating to Europe, or both (Storm 2009(Storm , p. 1000.…”

“…572Á573). Furthermore, the enhanced prosecution of the Islamist opposition post-9/11 as part of the global war on terror (GWoT) contributed to a vicious circle of suppression and radicalisation (Entelis 2004, Boubekeur and Amghar 2006, Alonso and García Rey 2007, Botha 2008, Pargeter 2009, Storm 2009). …”

“…. lost faith in democracy' (Storm 2009(Storm , p. 1008) and either turn away from politics or are gravitate towards Islamist movements that aim to overthrow the corrupt authoritarian regimes and establish 'true' Islamic alternatives. The return to traditional Islamic values was even promoted by states like Morocco, which tried to exploit Wahhabism and Salafism as a means of justifying authoritarian monarchic rule (Alonso and García Rey 2007, pp.…”

Between Dissent and Power

“…Yet what Benjamin Stora has labelled 'the invisible constructions' of Algerian politics (Stora 2001) make it especially challenging to decipher who exactly drives the decision-making process at the top levels of government and what their overarching strategy might be. Without falling blithely into Orientalist tropes of some unfathomable and exceptional 'East', Stora nonetheless draws our attention to the opacity, duplicity and paranoia that has characterized much of Algerian politics (or what some Algerians call la boulitique -roughly translated as 'politicking'): 'This deliberate opacity hinders our attempts at explanation, at eliciting some measure of solidarity from outside the country.…”

A Perverse Symbiosis: The State, Islam and Political Dissent in Contemporary Algeria

“…In Lise Storm's blunt but accurate rendition, 'The reason why the democratic opposition is so weak can be summed up in one word: repression.' (Storm, 2009) It was under very similar circumstances -albeit with the locus of revolutionary change in the Soviet bloc -that Chadli Benjedid opened a process of political reform which was to mark his own demise, the rise of Islamism and the subsequent ten-year civil war. The crucial difference between the current conjuncture and that of the early 1990s is that, in Algeria at least, it is Islamism that is in political decline while 'le pouvoir' has reasserted its hegemony.…”