CHAPTER 3 : THE STATE

Art. 25 – The sovereignty of the Algerian State shall be exercised over all its land space, air space, and territorial waters.

It shall also be exercised over all kinds of resources situated on or in its continental shelf and its exclusive economic area.

Art. 26 – The State takes its authority from the people’s will.

It shall be at the exclusive service of the people.

It shall draw its grounds for existence and efficiency from popular adhesion.

Art. 27 – The State is democratic in its objectives and functioning.

The active involvement of the people in the economic, social, and cultural building, in the administration and control of the State is an imperative of the Revolution.

Art. 28 – The objective of the socialist State of Algeria is the radical transformation of society based on the principles of socialist organization.

Art. 29 – The State shall transform production relationships, direct the national economy, and ensure its development based on a planning that is scientific in its conception, democratic in its devising, and imperative in its implementation.

The State shall organize production and determine the distribution of the national product. It shall be the principal agent of the remodelling of the economy and social relationships.

Art. 30 – The national plan shall ensure an integrated and harmonious development of all the regions and all the sectors of activity. It shall achieve the efficient utilization of all the productive forces, the increase of the national product and its fair distribution, as well as the enhancement of the Algerian people’s standards of life.

Art. 31 – The national plan shall be devised in a democratic way.

The people shall take part in this devising through their elected assemblies at the level of the commune, the wilaya, or the country, as well as through their workers’ and mass organizations’ assemblies.

The implementation of the national plan shall be decentralized without prejudice for central co-ordination by the highest authorities of the Party and the State.

Art. 32 – In order to manage the property of the national community, the State shall create companies that develop their activities in accordance with the interests of the people and the objectives of the national plan.

In keeping with the guidelines of the national plan, companies shall achieve a financial accumulation for the benefit of the patrimony entrusted to them and the national community.

Art. 33 – The State shall be responsible for the living conditions of each citizen.

It shall ensure the satisfaction of his material and moral needs and, in particular, his dignity and security exigencies.

Its objective shall be to free the citizen from exploitation, unemployment, illness, and ignorance.

It shall ensure the protection of its citizens abroad.

Art. 34 – The organization of the State shall rest on the principle of decentralization based on the democratization of institutions and the effective involvement of the masses in the management of public affairs.

Art. 35 – Decentralization shall be based on a judicious distribution of competent staff and tasks corresponding to a rational division of responsibilities within the frame of the unity of the State.

The decentralization policy aims to provide the territorial divisions with the human and material means and the responsibility to promote the development of their region by themselves in order to complement the efforts undertaken by the nation.

Art. 36 – The territorial divisions are the wilaya and the Commune.

The commune is the basic territorial, political, administrative, economic, social, and cultural community.   

The law shall determine the territorial organization and the administrative division of the territory.

Art. 37 – Public office is not a privilege but a responsibility. 

State officers shall exclusively take into consideration the interests of the people and the public good. The exercise of public office shall by no means become a source of enrichment, or an instrumentality serving private interests.

Art. 38 – Access to positions of responsibility within the State shall be open to all citizens who meet the criteria of competence, integrity, and commitment, who live solely on their salary, and do not, directly or through an intermediary, engage in a profit-making activity.