The unifier? Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Algeria's competitive authoritarian regime

Since the late 1970s, and especially since the end of the Cold War, the number of regimes that can be classified as democratic based on their respect for civil and political rights has more than doubled. The number of regimes incorporating characteristics of both democracy and authoritarianism has, however, increased even more dramatically. This has led to a great deal of debate within the literature as to exactly how such "hybrid" regimes should be classified and, as a result, the development of different theoretically and practically valuable schemas within which specific states' political regimes can be understood. One of the most prominent of these is the concept of competitive authoritarianism expounded by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way.;In this paper, I use that model as a framework to analyze the case of Algeria under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The practice of politics in competitive authoritarian regimes is, according to Levitsky and Way, characterized by real (albeit unfair) competition between governing incumbents and the political opposition. Electoral manipulations, unequal media access, application of state resources on behalf of regime-backed candidates, and varying degrees of harassment are used as means of skewing the "playing field" in favor of incumbents. The opposition is, however, able to effectively compete for power in meaningful elections that are widely seen as the only legitimate means of acquiring power. Analysis of Algerian politics and civil society demonstrates that this characterization can accurately be applied to the Algerian regime. Bouteflika's deft use of divide-and-rule tactics in dealing with both the political opposition and rival factions within the regime has allowed him to establish himself (the elected president) as the locus of power within the political sphere. At the same time, these machinations have fostered increasing pluralism in Algerian politics and civil society. Although the playing field in Algerian politics is still uneven, elections are widely seen as the sole legitimate path to power, the political opposition is able to effectively compete in the electoral process, and those elected are able to govern without constraints. Algeria therefore meets the criteria for definition as a competitive authoritarian regime.