The French Colonial State and Patrimonialism: Comparing Tunisia and Algeria

• In Event: 411 - Regular Session. Comparative Sociology: The Paradoxes of Success and Failure in Comparative Sociology

Abstract

The paper shows how local conditions coupled with the sequencing of conquests shaped the strategies and discourses of colonial states. It argues that the strength of local patrimonial networks before colonization either facilitated or hindered the French colonial and imperial project. Using a comparative-historical approach based on the analysis of two cases, Algeria and Tunisia, we show that the French colonial state employed markedly differing forms of domination in Algeria and Tunisia. In Algeria, the French initially attempted and failed to destroy local patrimonial networks and the social practices associated with them through extensive military action. The failed attempt to destroy local practices resulted in over a century of resistance and bloodshed. When military rule became too costly, however, the French opted instead to rely on decentralized control that used the very structures they originally sought to eradicate. With constant reminders of the misguided colonial strategy in Algeria, the French used a different form of rule in Tunisia. They incorporated the existing Tunisian bureaucracy into their own political project, using it to limit the power of local patrimonial networks and transforming them instead through the development of capitalistic agriculture. The paper illustrates the importance of paying close attention to local patrimonial networks in the analysis of colonial and imperial strategies and discourses. It shows that patrimonialism is useful for the analysis not only of nation states, but also of local and imperial power structures.

Keywords: Patrimonialism; empire; local; state; comparative sociology; France; Algeria; Tunisia.

Authors

• Mounira Maya Charrad, University of Texas-Austin

• Daniel Jaster, University of Texas