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Legitimation towards whom?

Managing the legitimacy crisis in Algeria during the Arab Uprisings

Legitimierung gegenüber wem?

Wie die Legitimitätskrise in Algerien während des Arabischen Frühlings (nicht) gelöst wurde

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Abstract

This paper studies how strategies of legitimation are employed by ruling elites in authoritarian regimes and received by different addressees during a crisis of legitimacy. The Algerian case of authoritarian persistence in the Arab uprisings illustrates a conceptual framework that differentiates between addressees, types and modes of legitimation. The focus on societal target groups and their response is crucial for assessing the success or failure of regime strategies and reveals a dark side of legitimation in Algeria. The empirical study builds on qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2013. As many of the legitimation strategies failed, the legitimacy crisis in this case could not be solved. Few successful strategies contributed to the persistence of authoritarian rule.

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie Legitimierungsstrategien in Autokratien von der herrschenden Elite eingesetzt und von verschiedenen Adressaten während einer Legitimitätskrise rezipiert werden. Der Fall Algeriens als persistente Autokratie im Arabischen Frühling illustriert eine Konzeptualisierung, die Adressaten, Typen und Modi von Legitimierung unterscheidet. Die Berücksichtigung gesellschaftlicher Adressatengruppen ist wichtig, da deren Reaktion über den Erfolg der Strategien entscheidet. Die empirischen Ergebnisse basieren auf qualitativer Feldforschung aus dem Jahr 2013. Die im Arabischen Frühling manifeste Legitimitätskrise konnte nicht gelöst werden, da einige Legitimierungsstrategien scheiterten. Wenige erfolgreiche trugen zum Fortbestehen des Autoritarismus in Algerien bei.

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Notes

  1. A regime comprises “the formal and informal organization of the center of political power, and of its relations with the broader society” (Fishman 1990, p. 428).

  2. For such a disaggregation and the idea of legitimation failure see also Holbig and Gilley (2010, p. 399).

  3. This perspective goes beyond Gerschewski’s claim that legitimation, co-optation and repression are pillars of stability in autocracies reinforcing each other (2013, p. 27). While he suggests possible conceptualizations of their relationship as “neutral, substitutive, conflictive, or complementary” (ibid.), complementarity is his basic assumption.

  4. Most of them include the dimension of external legitimacy, which is not part of my definition because domestic addressees are the target group of relevance.

  5. For the Arab world, Schlumberger (2010) stresses the importance of tradition and differentiates between religion and ideology, which I subsume under identity-related legitimation, plus he adds material legitimacy.

  6. The suggested typology is closest to Pruzan-Jørgensen’s, but casts a wider net to cover empirics through preferring personal over charismatic legitimation and developing the broader identity-related legitimation.

  7. While tradition could be subsumed under Easton’s definition of structural legitimacy, I prefer to stress the specific character of dynastic rule.

  8. Traditional values embodied by ruling elites don’t necessarily correspond with values that prevail on the addressees’ side and vice versa, especially in heterogeneous societies. See Pickel and Stark (2010) for the relation between political culture and legitimacy in autocratic regimes.

  9. Pickel (2010, p. 198) mentions ideology as a source of legitimacy that can comprise nationalism, equality, religion and shared norms.

  10. Albrecht and Schlumberger call it “allocative power” (2004, p. 377).

  11. Albrecht and Frankenberger see “merito-personal legitimacy” as a defining trait of authoritarian regimes (2010, pp. 57–58).

  12. Oil products make up almost 40% of the GDP, 60% of budget revenues and more than 97% of exports (Dris-Ait Hamadouche and Dris 2012).

  13. 21.5% of men and 37.6% of women between 15–24 years were officially unemployed in 2010. All figures are taken from the ILOSTAT Database. http://www.ilo.org/ilostat. Accessed 02.05.14.

  14. Cf. the Communiqué of the CNCD, which can be accessed on the Facebook site of the youth movement “Algérie Pacifique”. https://www.facebook.com/notes/-alg%C3%A9rie-pacifique-le-collectif-citoyen/communiqu%C3%A9-de-la-coordination-nationale-pour-le-changement-et-la-d%C3%A9mocratie/178661528839849. Accessed 25.11.15.

  15. Interviews A01, A13.

  16. Interviews A02, A13.

  17. Interview A08.

  18. Interview A08.

  19. Statement at press conference of civil society organizations, November 2013, Algiers.

  20. Interview A07.

  21. Interview A13.

  22. Interviews A01, A04.

  23. Interview A01.

  24. Interviews A01, A06, A13.

  25. Interview A09.

  26. Already in 2002, Tessler found that only 48% of respondents in Algeria strongly agreed with the statement “Democracy may have problems but it’s better than any other form of government”, much less than in other Arab countries (2005, p. 199 ff.).

  27. Interview A10.

  28. Interview A14.

  29. Interview A01.

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Acknowledgements

Previous versions of this paper were presented at the 22nd International Conference of the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) in Bochum, 24–26 September 2015, the DVPW Congress in Duisburg, 21–25 September 2015, and the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops in Pisa, 24–28 April 2016. The author would like to thank André Bank, Mirjam Edel, Oliver Schlumberger, Lee Morgenbesser, and the participants of this special issue’s authors’ workshop, especially Maria Debre, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This article is based on two chapters from the author’s PhD thesis that was successfully defended at the University of Tübingen in 2014.

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  1. GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354, Hamburg, Germany

    Maria Josua

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Appendix

Appendix

1.1 List of interviewees (all interviews were conducted by the author in French language in Algiers, all translations are the author’s own)

  • A01: Anti-corruption activist, November 2013

  • A02: Social scientist, October 2013

  • A04: Freelance director, November 2013

  • A06: Historian, October 2013

  • A07: Trade union functionary, October 2013

  • A08: Human rights activist, October 2013

  • A09: Political scientist, October 2013

  • A10: Citizen, October 2013

  • A13: Journalist, October 2013

  • A14: Youth, October 2013

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Josua, M. Legitimation towards whom?. Z Vgl Polit Wiss 11, 301–324 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-017-0331-3

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