After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The government gained the upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. The army placed Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the presidency in 1999 but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide re-election victory. A number of longstanding problems continue to face Bouteflika in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, and government inefficiencies. Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems. Algeria assumed a two-year seat on the UN Security Council in January 2004.¹³

Algeria 's political and geographical divisions are reflected by the respective economic outputs - and problems - of the different regions. The north is densely populated, with high levels of unemployment. The centre of the country has relatively low levels of industrial, services and manufacturing output. The south is rich in oil and natural gas, the exploitation of which is dominated by the state-owned company, Sonatrach, which has been for decades the foremost generator of government revenue.¹⁴

GDP per capita is Intl $4104. This falls within the range of $8,272 ( Libya) and $346 ( Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the countries of Africa (Table 4).

Table 4 GDP per capita (Intl $): countries of Africa, 2001