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.
