Introduction: When Algeria protests. The Maghreb at the prism of Algerian Hirak ; Introduction : Quand l'Algérie proteste. Le Maghreb au prisme du hirak algérien

Abstract

. In general, succession periods, as a test for the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes, are delicate phases to be managed by the governors. Some perform better than others in the Maghreb, like others. At the turn of the 2000s, half a century after independence, succession analysts in Morocco, Jordan and Syria observed that the monarchies had consolidated their respective dynasty, while Bashar Al-Assad's choice to succeed his father in Syria confirmed the dynastic drift that worked on the 'republican' regimes in the region (Leveau and Hammoudi; (2002) a decade later, the wave of challenges to the 'Arab Spring' recalls that the temporal variable, understood as the duration of regimes identified at their autocrate (42 years for Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, 34 years for Ali Abdullah Saleh in Northern Yemen and then in the reunited Yemen, 31 years for Mubarak in Egypt, 23 years for Ben Ali in Tunisia) is an element in assessing the fragility of the legitimacy of these republican powers. This does not mean that the monarchies of North Africa and the Middle East would escape. as by enchantment, multisectoral mobilisations, that is to say protest movements contributing to the 'opening up of confrontation spaces' (Dobry, 1986) and, consequently, likely to take over their leaders. However, their hereditary character appears to be a way of devolving 'normal' power, previously organised in accordance with procedures and a protocol provided for by the fundamental 'nation' pact. The texts presented in this issue question the factors which make the emergence of large-scale collective action possible in Algeria, in particular and in the Maghreb, in general. Contributors are interested in both the institutional crisis following the Hirak and the imaginations conveyed by slogans and protesters' demands. Their reflections lead to questions about the ambivalent relationship between the Maghreb people and the state, perceived both as a coercive device used by a ruling coalition cut off from society and as a distributor of resources ...