Civil society and socio-political changes in Algeria: evolution of discourses and strategies.

Abstract

Algerian civil society has a long history of mobilization and social and political resistance that dates to the end of the 1980s, when a brief but intense process of political openness and pluralism began. The incipient electoral process and the first signs of an autonomous sphere of social and political expression were brutally aborted by the military coup of 1991. Since then civil society has evolved in both its discourses and the strategies used against the autocratic political system, which has remained unchanged despite the waves of resistance led by social movements in North Africa and the Middle East since 2011. This article analyses the evolution of the main discourses and strategies used by Algerian civil society and social movements which, despite the inhibitory factors of the country's recent history and the uniqueness of its political system, are carriers of social transformations and political change.