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Algeria
Boumediene Regime
Boumediene described the military coup as a "historic rectification"
of the Algerian War of Independence. Boumediene dissolved the
National Assembly, suspended the 1963 constitution, disbanded
the militia, and abolished the Political Bureau, which he considered
an instrument of Ben Bella's personal rule.
Until a new constitution was adopted, political power resided
in the Council of the Revolution, a predominantly military body
intended to foster cooperation among various factions in the army
and the party. The council's original twenty-six members included
former internal military leaders, former Political Bureau members,
and senior officers of the Armée Nationale Populaire (ANP--People's
National Army) closely associated with Boumediene in the coup.
They were expected to exercise collegial responsibility for overseeing
the activities of the new government, which was conducted by the
largely civilian Council of Ministers, or cabinet, appointed by
Boumediene. The cabinet, which shared some functions with the
Council of the Revolution, was also inclusive; it contained an
Islamic leader, technical experts, FLN regulars, as well as others
representing a broad range of Algerian political and institutional
life.
Boumediene showed himself to be an ardent nationalist, deeply
influenced by Islamic values, and he was reportedly one of the
few prominent Algerian leaders who expressed himself better in
Arabic than in French. He seized control of the country not to
initiate military rule, but to protect the interests of the army,
which he felt were threatened by Ben Bella. Boumediene's position
as head of government and of state was not secure initially, partly
because of his lack of a significant power base outside the armed
forces. This situation may have accounted for his deference to
collegial rule as a means of reconciling competing factions. Nonetheless,
FLN radicals criticized Boumediene for neglecting the policy of
autogestion and betraying "rigorous socialism"; in addition,
some military officers were unsettled by what they saw as a drift
away from collegiality. There were coup attempts and a failed
assassination in 1967-68, after which opponents were exiled or
imprisoned and Boumediene's power consolidated.
Agricultural production, meanwhile, still failed to meet the
country's food needs. The so-called agricultural revolution that
Boumediene launched in 1971 called for the seizure of additional
property and the redistribution of the newly acquired public lands
to cooperative farms (see Land
Tenure and Reform , ch. 3).
Eleven years after he took power, in April 1976, Boumediene set
out in a draft document called the National Charter the principles
on which the long-promised constitution would be based. After
much public debate, the constitution was promulgated in November
1976, and Boumediene was elected president with 95 percent of
the votes (see Structure
of the National Government , ch. 4). Boumediene's death on
December 27, 1978, set off a struggle within the FLN to choose
a successor. As a compromise to break a deadlock between two other
candidates, Colonel Chadli Bendjedid, a relative outsider, was
sworn in on February 9, 1979.
Data as of December 1993
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