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Algeria
The Society and Its Environment
![[GIF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/algeria/dz02_00a.gif)
Modern domed houses at El Oued in eastern Algeria
ALGERIAN SOCIETY has undergone major changes since the mid-1980s.
Urbanization has increased steadily, and in 1990 more than 50
percent of the population lived in urban areas, found primarily
near the coast. Furthermore, dislocation caused by the steep fall
of oil prices in 1986 and inefficiencies in the public sector
caused the government to initiate extensive reforms encompassing
the economic, social, and political sectors. The government shifted
from its rigid centralized system of decision making to a greater
emphasis on market forces. With the help of international organizations
such as the World
Bank (see Glossary), major transformations began taking place
in agriculture, banking, and in price controls, thereby changing
Algeria's socioeconomic structure. The government also increased
public expenditures in the early 1990s to upgrade education and
health care.
Despite those positive changes, the early 1990s have seen a rise
in unemployment, a drop in per capita income, critical housing
shortages, and other problems. In part, these problems resulted
from the policies of previous governments, but they were exacerbated
by the sharp downturn in oil prices in the mid-1980s. Further
affecting Algeria's progress on the socioeconomic front has been
the political turmoil resulting from the confrontation between
government forces and Islamists (sometimes seen as fundamentalists).
Islamists have sought to redefine Algerian identity to be more
Arab and more Muslim and have questioned the legitimacy of the
existing political system, which they perceive as too secular
and too Western.
Data as of December 1993
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