Resumen de Politics and Arabization: the evolution of postindependence North Africa

Craig A. Sirles

• Soon öfter independence, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia instituted programs to Arabize schools, courts, and the bureaucracy. Four decades later, success in Arabization in Algeria, the most gallicized of the three countries, has been greatest; in postindependence Tunisia, whose native population is 100 percent Arabic-speaking, French presence has flourished; Morocco's linguistic Situation, where French colonial influence was least, remains murky. This study argues for the primacy of politics in language planning (LP) andproposes three sociopolitical variables for assessing four decades of North African LP: (A) makeup of the politicalfeconomic eilte;

  (B) consistency of ideological commitment to LP; (C) conflict between national development and traditional values. This article reviews the history of North African Arabization LP and concludes the following: factors A and C accountfor the vitality of French in Tunisia and Morocco; factor B has been the largest determinant of Arabization success in Algeria; factor C bes