The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Aug 22, 2002 - Business & Economics - 323 pages
In 1962, after the war of independence, the new rulers of Algeria inherited a country which had both the manpower and the financial resources needed for development, because of its reserves of oil and natural gas. During the last 26 years there have been discussions and experiments revolving around two problems: whether the economy should be controlled by the government or should be one in which private enterprise (the multi-national companies and their local agents) play a larger part; and whether the main emphasis of economic policy should be on heavy industry or on agriculture and consumer industries. This book gives a detailed account of the discussions and changes of policy and analyses the experiments and their results. Dr Bennoune argues that the rapid development of basic industries provides the only path by which countries in the Third World can hope to attain real independence, and that this policy demands a degree of public participation that only a democratic government can generate.
 

Contents

Algerian society and economy before 1830
15
The nature of colonialism
35
Colonial development population and manpower
52
Socioeconomic consequences of colonial development
60
The aftermath of the war of national liberation
89
Industrialisation as the motor of development
114
The development of the private industrial sector
162
Agriculture the stagnation of production and its consequences
176
Postindependence urbanisation and the housing crisis
237
Public health since 1962
245
The growth of employment income and consumption
252
The new economic policy and its implications
262
Conclusion
303
Notes
312
Index
320
Copyright

Education and development
218

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