One need not justify the choice made by algeria’s political and military elites then, and in the brutal years that followed, in order to recognize the obstacle to democratization inherent in the fear of radical islam as the alternative waiting just offstage should a current regime collapse.
In recent decades, there has been only one parallel elsewhere: the fear of a radical leftwing or “communist” electoral takeover. It is no coincidence that in those countries (in latin America, and south Africa) where this fear gripped authoritarian rulers and some of their liberal opponents, elites proved willing to negotiate transitions to democracy only when the prospect of the antidemocratic left conquering power had dissipatad as a result of brutal suppression or the end of the cold war.