ALGERIA: New Leader

A decline of one-man rule

If ever a man embodied Louis XIV's legendary boast, "L 'état, c 'est moi," it was the late Algerian leader Houari Boumedienne. When he died last December, Boumedienne was not only Algeria's President but also its Minister of Defense, president of the Council of the Revolution and chief of the National Liberation Front (F.L.N.), the country's only political party. Finding a President to succeed such a pervasive figure presented a delicate problem for the eight-man council, many of whose members aspired to the post. In the end, the...