The political economy of structural adjustment in Tunisia and Algeria

Journal of North African Studies

Volumn 3, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 1-24

  Dillman, Bradford ^a  

^a KOÇ UNIVERSITY   (Turkey)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC REFORM; POLITICAL ECONOMY; STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT;

ALGERIA; TUNISIA;

EID: 0032231496     PISSN: 13629387     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13629389808718335     Document Type: Article

References (105)

1. Karen Pfeifer, 'Between Rocks and Hard Choices: International Finance and Economic Adjustment in North Africa', in Dirk Vandewalle (ed.) North Africa: Development and Reform in a Changing Global Economy, (New York: St. Martin's Press 1996) pp.25-63.
2. The hypotheses by Haggard and Kaufman about how regime characteristics affect ability to respond to economic crises are supported by this comparison, Stephen Haggard and Robert Kaufman, 'The Political Economy of Authoritarian Withdrawals', in Paul Drake and Mathew McCubbins (eds) The Origins of Liberty: Political and Economic Liberalization in the Modern World (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1998). Dominant-party regimes such as Tunisia's have a better capacity to resist demands for withdrawal by successfully implementing economic adjustment than military governments suffering from factionalism, uncertain control of the bureaucracy, and politically weak economic teams.
3. Azzedine Layachi, 'The Domestic and International Constraints of Economic Adjustment in Algeria', in Dirk Vandewalle (ed.) North Africa: Development and Reform in a Changing Global Economy (New York: St. Martin's Press 1996).
4. See Terry Lynn Karl, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States (Berkley: University of California Press 1997). Delays in initiating reforms and inability to restructure the economy are common in 'petro-states' like Algeria because of structural features of oil-export led development.
5. More than 70 per cent of the delegates attending the 1988 party congress were new (Mohammad Elbaki Hermassi 'Le system politique tunisien et le 7 novembre', in Bassma Kodmani-Darwish (ed) Maghreb: Les années de transition [Paris: Masson, 1990] p.103).
6. I. William Zartman, 'The Conduct of Political Reform: The Path Toward Democracy', in Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform (Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers 1991) pp.19-20.
7. Ahmed Bouyacoub, 'L'économie algérienne et le programme d'ajustment structurel'. Confluences Méditerranées 21 (Spring 1997) p.82.
8. Africa Confidential, 4 March 1994, p.7.
9. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 13 August 1993, p.15.
10. Ghazi Hidouci, Algérie: la libération inachevée (Paris: La Découverte 1995).
11. Layachi (see note 3).
12. Nicole Grimaud, 'La spécificité tunisienne en question'. Politique Étrangère (Summer 1995) pp.399-400.
13. For a comprehensive but excessively laudatory examination of factors leading to success of structural reforms in Tunisia, see Saled Nsouli et al The Path to Convertablity and Growth: The Tunisian Experience (Washington DC: International Monetary Fund 1993)
14. The World Bank, Claiming the Future: Choosing Prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa (Washington DC 1995).
15. Ben Romdhane, Mahinoud 'Fondements et contenu des restructurations face à la crise économique en Tunisie', in Etat et développement dans le monde arabe (Paris: CNRS 1990) p.175.
16. Dirk Vandewalle, 'Ben Ali's New Era: Pluralism and Economic Privatization in Tunisia', in Henri Barkey (ed) The Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East (New York: St. Martin's Press 1992), p.116.
17. IMF Survey, 9 November 1992, p.348.
18. Africa Research Bulletin. Economic, Financial and Technical Series [ARBEFTS]. 16 June 1993, 11309.
19. IMF Survey, 18 June 1990, 179.
20. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Country Report: Tunisia. 2nd Quarter (London: Economist Intelligence Unit 1996) p.3.
21. World Bank. World Development Indicators CD ROM (Washington: The World Bank 1997).
22. IMF Survey. 13 December 1993, p.379.
23. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED], 11 March 1994, p.22;
24. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED], 6 May 1994, p.28.
25. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED], 26 August 1994, p.27.
26. IMF Survey. 13 December 1993, p.378.
27. World Bank, (see note 20).
28. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Tunisia: Country Profile 1992/93. (London: Economist Intelligence Unit 1992, p.9);
29. Country Report: Tunisia (see note 19) p.3.
30. Aid from the European Union to Tunisia tripled over the period 1996-99 compared to 1992-95. Tunisia absorbed 11 per cent of all the EU's MEDA credits, with one of the highest per capita rates of credits in the Mediterranean (Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 6 March 1998) p.497.
31. Although negotiations over an association agreement between the EU and Algeria started in 1994, an agreement had still not been reached by 1998, partly due to Algerian insistence that the EU compensate them for revenue lost by dismantling tariffs.
32. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Algeria: Country Profile 1993/94. (London: Economist Intelligence Unit 1993) p.17.
33. Naceur Bourenane, 'Les réformes des structures productives en Algérie: désengagement de l'État ou désétatisation de l'économie publique?', in Habib El Malki and Jean-Claude Santucci (eds) Etat et développement dans le monde arabe (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 1990) pp.177-93.
34. Hocine Benissad, La réforme économique en Algérie (Algiers: Office des Publications Universitaires 1991) pp.144-50.
35. World Bank (see note 20).
36. Since it was impossible to reduce the some 52 billion that had to be spent simply on food imports by 1993 (MEED, 4 March 1994) p.2, foreign exchange rationing hit the industrial sector hardest.
37. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Algeria: Country Report. 2nd Quarter. (London. Economist Intelligence Unit 1992a) p.14.
38. Ahmed Bouyacoub, 'L'économie algérienne et le programme d'ajustment structurel'. Confluences Méditerranée 21 (Spring 1997), p.81.
39. The World Bank (see note 20) estimates that manufacturing output fell by 8 per cent from 1985-95.
40. Abdellatif Benachenhou, 'Inflation et chômage en Algérie: les aléas de la démocratie et des réformes économiques', Monde arabe/Maghreb Machrek, 139 (January-March 1993) pp.28-41.
41. Bouyacoub (see note 35) p.82.
42. World Bank (see note 20).
43. Although GDP grew by some 4 per cent in 1996 due exclusively to greater hydrocarbons exports and a record cereal harvest, it suffered again in 1998 as world oil prices dropped dramatically.
44. World Bank (see note 20).
45. Ibid.
46. Bouyacoub (see note 35) pp.80-81.
47. El Watan [Online], 17 August 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
48. Djillali Hadjaj, 'Une population à la dérive', Le Monde Diplomatique (September 1998), p.20.
49. El Watan [Online], 16 August 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
50. FBIS-NES-98-175, 24 June 1998.
51. El Watan [Online], 17 August 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
52. World Bank. World Debt Tables 1993-94. Vol 2. Country Tables (Washington DC: The World Bank 1993) p.462.
53. World Debt Tables 1993-94 Ibid, pp.463-4.
54. Clement M. Henry, The Mediterranean Debt Crescent: Money and Power in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey (Gainesville: University Press of Florida 1996) p.31.
55. In 1993 Mohamed Ghannouchi, Minister of International Cooperation and Foreign Investment, stated, 'We don't borrow much from banks...Maybe that's how you remain a good risk' (MEED, 15 October 1993, 30).
56. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 22 October 1993, p.21.
57. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 23 September 1994, p.31.
58. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 4 February 1994, p.8.
59. Iliya Harik, 'Privatization and Development in Tunisia', in Iliya Harik and Denis Sullivan (eds) Privatization and Liberalization in the Middle East (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1992) p.222.
60. Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 31 October 1997, p.2362.
61. Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 17 July 1998, p.1521.
62. Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 3 April 1998, p.704.
63. World Bank. World Debt Tables 1993-94. Vol 2. Country Tables (see note 49) p.6.
64. Africa Research Bulletin. Economic, Financial and Technical Series [ARBEFTS], 16 April 1993, p.11230.
65. Karen Pfeifer, 'Algeria's Implicit Stabilization Program', in Henri Berkey (ed.) The Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East (New York: St. Martin's Press 1992) pp.153-81.
66. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 1 October 1993, p.12.
67. World Bank. World Debt Tables 1993-94. Vol 2. Country Tables (see note 49) pp.6, 462.
68. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Country Report: Algeria. 3rd Quarter, p.18. (London: Economist Intelligence Unit 1997).
69. This government-declared figure is probably grossly exaggerated, as the World Bank (note 20) estimates net FDI in 1994 at $18 million and only $5 million in 1995.
70. Conjuncture, March 1996, p.16.
71. Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 26 September 1997, p.2095.
72. Henry, The Mediterranean Debt Crescent: Money and Power in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey (see note 51) pp.51-4.
73. Clement Henry Moore, 'Les enjeux politiques des réformes bancaires au Maghreb', in Habib El Malki and Jean-Claude Santucci (eds) Etat et développement dans le monde arabe (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 1990) pp.250-51.
74. Etat et développement dans le monde arabe Ibid p.251.
75. Clement Henry Moore 'Tunisian Banking: Politics of Adjustment and the Adjustment of Politics', in I. William Zartman (ed), Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers 1991) p.75.
76. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Tunisia: Country Profile 1992/93. (London: Economist Intelligence Unit 1992b) p.20.
77. Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 21 November 1997, 2526-2527).
78. Eva Bellin 'Tunisian Industrialists and the State', in I. William Zartman (ed.) Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform (Boulder: Lynne Rienner 1991) p.59.
79. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Tunisia: Country Profile 1992/93. (London: Economist Intelligence Unit 1992) p.8.
80. Ben Romdhane 'L'accord de libre-échange entre la Tunisie et l'UE: un impératif, des espoirs, des inquiétudes'.' Confluences Méditerranées 21 (Spring 1997) p.58.
81. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 12 June 1998, p.10.
82. Middle East Economic Digest [MEED]. 17 April 1998, p.10
83. Anjali Kumar, State Holding Companies and Public Enterprises in Transition. (New York: St. Martin's Press 1993) p.178.
84. Pamela Day Pelletreau, 'Private Sector Development Through Public Sector Restructuring? The Cases of the Gafsa Phosphate Company and the Chemical Group', in I. William Zartman (ed) Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers 1991) p.129.
85. Harik (see note 56) p.214; and Pelletreau, (see note 81) p.129.
86. Abdelsatar Grissa, 'The Tunisian State Enterprises and Privatization Policy', in I. William Zartman (ed) Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers 1991) p.119.
87. Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform, Ibid, p.123.
88. Tunisia: The Political Economy of Reform, Ibid, p.132.
89. Dirk Vandewalle (see note 15) p.118.
90. Harik (See note 56) pp.219-20.
91. Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens [MTM]. 1 May 1998, p.914.
92. Kumar (see note 80) pp.174-6.
93. Ibid.
94. Conjuncture, March 1996, p.25.
95. According to the Minister of Industrial Restructuring and Participation, Mourad Benachenhou, this massive spending had little effect on reforms in the public sector (MEED, 1 July 1994, 14).
96. Maghreb Confidentiel, no. 350, 4 December 1997.
97. El Watan [Online], 17 August 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
98. Maghreb Confidentiel, no. 359, 12 February 1998;
99. El Watan [Online], 23 July 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
100. See El Watan [Online], 26 July 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
101. Maghreb Confidentiel, no. 359, 12 February 1998.
102. El Watan [Online], 23 July 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
103. El Watan [Online], 3 August 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
104. El Watan [Online], 23 July 1998. Available: [19 August 1998].
105. El Watan [Online], 1998. Ibid.