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An interesting article by Nathan Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on democracy and Islamism in the recent Kuwaiti elections.

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Setback for Democratic Islamism.pdf	103.75 KB

National Reconciliation Higher Committee conference in Cairo. Member of national reconciliation higher committee Faleh Al Fayad announced that a small conference with the participation of political figures in Cairo will be held mid June to agree on a unified agenda and a clear strategy of reconciliation to reach a comprehensive vision among different parties

Parliamentary elections pushed forward using new five-district system.

by Nasser Djabi
Originally published in Arabic in El-Djazira newspaper and used with permission of the author - unofficial English translation. Until now we have not paid close attention to our political party’s phenomenon, despite the many indicators which confirm that the Algerian political party is currently struggling in multiple forms and manifestations, both visible and hidden. For example, the last legislative elections in May 2007, was distinguished by its weakened popular participation (one of only three Algerians participated in these elections officially, whereas sources spoke about an even lower participation rate). There is an opportunity to talk about recent political crisis and open a serious discussion to find out why the party failed to attract the citizens and even supporters to participate in an electoral process of this size. And why the Algerian party entered into a deep hibernation directly post-election events. With respect to the coming local elections next November 2007, certain primary indicators bring us back to the same scene, however this time the citizen won’t be the only one absent from this election’s merit, but also the candidate. Indeed, many political leaders announced that the parties complained about the absence of nominees for these elections, which lost much of its dazzle even for the elites that were previously attracted to the elections. Those local elites come from medium composition of traditional social affiliations and make a strong presence within the local party bureaucracy after the domination of the central elites that own tertiary education and control party devices in the legislative elections. Unless we pay close attention as we enter the phase of pluralism and the emergence of political parties as did the political action at the beginning of the nineties, the phenomenon in Algerian partisan culture and methods of work and for many generations is not known in nature and may not be acceptable, while we thought it will take root in us spontaneously like the autumn rains here, simply because there is a new constitutional provision that allows a multi-party system. Contrary to the historical experience which confirmed that a generation or two of Algerians who knew the phenomenon of multi-party politics and lived in it during the national movement until the revolution started at the beginning of the fifties, that’s to say the history of the party did not exceed three decades, if we assume that the first Algerian party to commence in the early twenties at the beginning of the last century and that the phenomenon of pluralism has practically disappeared with the start of the revolution(1954). What we have not paid attention to carefully as well as its negative consequences is behavior, culture and interactions after starting pluralism, if several generations of young Algerians born prior to its independence and post-owns an extremely negative look on the phenomenon of the parties, and for several reasons, I have read in the school and history books in addition I have heard from the mouths of speakers of the direct active and revolutionary generations, which dominated intellectually and politically after independence that ... Men of the national movement and its political institutions and working methods had delayed starting a revolution and liberation they facilitated colonization and the bourgeoisie pattern dominates their nature and therefore do not represent "the people" with respect to what we heard and read for many years was intensified in behavior and culture is evident in the anti-educated and educated at the central categories I have said it before the accused were not as firm as it should be with the colonial phenomenon. It is the same as we hear of some parliamentary successful experiences in the Third World these days, which has been accused by the rejectionists as being experiments ... Disrupt the work of the government and hinder the achievements ... and ... philosophize too, but ... cost the state budget funds and money ... distort decision-making power at the state level. A unique experience is the unilateral and negative practices that we have lived as a political system and society after independence increased a black image in the eyes of the majority of Algerians who are refused entry, becoming not only of interest to small groups of the state and its foundation of direct human base. This has equal work partisan and opportunistic climbing and ignoring ambiguity with arguments that show later that it cost us a lot. This experiment that used the party organization as an empty frontline with no life, and to pass the resolution as determined by the actual administrative and security staff, who devoted some of the government personnel headed by teachers to settle inside of the unified party bodies as the human base of this experiment that has resembled some other Arabic experiments, such as the Baathist party under Jamal Abdel-Nasser. The pluralism of the multi-party system in the nineties gave authorization to generations of Algerians, which has not been experienced or lived before, a negative view of them, this developed Salafist and religious thoughts, which in the case of the rise from the end of the eighties to an ideology hostile to the positions of many of the achievements of human thought forcibly attributed to the West, like democracy, which settled disbelief among some radical currents, to the extent it could be argued that the best known party pluralism which is the one who tried to work in secret with all its disadvantages and few advantages as is the case with the Muslim Brotherhood and some currents Leftist and the Tamazight movement. The partisan emerging from the secret exercise to practice pluralism, attributed intense conclusions from its previous confidential old estrangement and rejecting dialogue within the organization and subsequent leadership and the individual arguments had led many anti-Pacific and State organs to be split, if necessary, which did not find the fighter within its organization ... etc.. Evil is still synonymous with partisan action even in our largest parties that call themselves democrats. It is not surprising with our current situation to produce a disabled partisan experience, that knows many of the shortcomings and misrepresentations, given the posts in the party, well-known success stories to produce a political elite and framing citizens and represent them and imagine solutions and suggestions, and even the peaceful transfer of power through a peaceful conflict resolution that has been experienced by society to the final duties known to the political party. Algerian political party have failed miserably in recruiting the Algerian citizen, which has remained outside the political game, with the exception of the case of recruitment witnessed at the beginning of the nineties, which also confirms another way is the failure of the party once again, where it didn’t lead to a peaceful solution for conflict and political framing of the citizen, so that the proactive forces has dominated the political scene by direct intense action on larger leadership in the parties in that period of time to live miserably and it could destroy the pluralism experimentation, which has been misrepresented and emptied of its constituents even though it did not finish it legally. The political party has once again failed to perform its basic function to reach power and to handle it peacefully, whereas there is no direct relationship between the election results and access to power not even the Executive and Legislative branches as if we are in front of parties with no actual goals, which can be done through a recruitment for a patriot and the citizen, that which tempts citizens in the struggle within the party and the recruitment of citizens around, what can attract the citizen to lead inside the parties and recruit the citizens around them where if he knows in advance that his actual participation in decision making will be close to zero, not in Parliament, which has become a distortion of the political action more than anything as it showed the boycotted rates of the elections, not even in the executive branch, which has been centered in the actual power since the first years of pluralism among ministers ... The pretext is that they are not party members and thus can trust them and give them the important sectors and the authority's decision as is showed clearly within Bouteflika’s experiment where he granted the sensitive sectors within the executive branch (internal, external, oil, justice) since he came to power in 1999 to technocrats with their unique attributed were personal and private relationship that they had with him, and built on clear and known foundations. To empty partisan action of its content and prevent the party from performing its functions, it enabled them to discover the functions other than those created originally. This experiment produced dysfunctional parties and inexperienced leaders who are not fit for the minimum qualifications of leadership. How many times have we listened to political party leaders give a "speech" that makes the citizen deny the pluralistic and partisanship of the party, but he rejects all the values, due to the shallow content and the ill-style of the speech in all known and used languages. Parties live in permanent turmoil and will explode on the election occasions and conferences. Its characteristics are composed of division and a rejection of dialogue, and emptiness of intellectual and political content. Of course the picture appears bleak and discouraging to the largest affected, but it is not hopeless in the end, if we were convinced that the emergence of partisan experience and successful nationalistic or even average performance is not an automatic process in the historical experience that Algeria lived, and within the political system that is known for its hostility for any independent political action that can be performed by the partisan elites who compete for access to the actual decision-making centers. It might be the first steps to reach the perceptions to get out of the crisis, the recognition that the Algerian party experiment is in crisis, but a very deep crisis, following with the opening of a serious and frank national debate to get beyond the existing dark situation, if we are really convinced that we are still in need for a political party in Algeria.

Please visit http://www.qatar-conferences.org/democracy2008/program.php to view a provisional schedule of events.

Location(s)

How do political parties in the region better build loyalty among young voters?

This two-day conference will be a multilingual dialogue on the necessity of youth mobilization in the political process and empowering emerging leaders in political parties and civil society. Bringing together Moroccan and American experts on media, political party participation, youth mobilization and citizen journalism, participants will engage the speakers in debate, hold small group discussions, and partake in youth mobilization workshops. The participants will also develop and ratify policy recommendations to be presented to government representatives. Topics will include: * Space for youth in political parties
* The role of civil society
* Media and democracy
* Youth mobilization through citizen journalism http://pomed.org/activities/conferences/morocco-app/

Location(s)

Long delayed municipal polls will be held on April 8, 2008.

Is it necessary for economic development to take place before political development is possible; or can economic and political development happen simultaneously?

Presidential Election Algeria - April 2009

How can a member of parliament remain in close contact with constituencies while performing the majority of legislative duties in the capital?

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