Who Controls the Past Controls the Future: How Algeria Manipulated History and Legitimated Power Using its Constitutional Charters and Legislation

Abstract

Contemporary Algeria was born after 132 years of colonization and a bloody decolonization war that lasted almost eight years. The official version and the dominant historical narrative of the war of independence has been influencing the state-owned media, the process of memorialization and the education system for years. This article will focus on how history was manipulated and used to legitimate political power using ordinary legislation as well as the highest source of law: the constitution. This article argues that by studying Algerian legislation and the various constitutional charters we can obtain key insight into ways in which the triad of the state, the party, and the army has been able to reproduce and re-appropriate symbols and narratives of the nation through constitutional measures and/or amendments.

Remembering Lived Past: History and Memory in Post-Stalin Azerbaijan

“…Another sphere where manipulated history uses by political power for its justification is legislation. 8 Researchers who investigate the connection between history, memory, and political power point out the important role of memory in bridging power and society. 9 In authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries, the ability of a society to produce an autonomous, alternative narrative of history is restricted because 'the elite is the owner of the interpretation of the past and history focuses solely on the foundational "master-narrative" of the state'.…”