Since February 22nd 2019, Algeria has entered an unprecedented phase in its history. The massive, peaceful and determined mobilization of the population against a regime in place since independence (1962) is the expression of a revolution in progress, embodied by the Hirak (‘the movement’—the name the citizens’ movement has given itself). Our contribution proposes a reading of Algerian society through the crisis of the neo-patrimonial State and the social contract on which it relies. Starting from the analysis of the nature of the system in place and the changes that the country is undergoing, the objective is to show how social redistribution is grounded on a fiction allowing the maintenance of a clientelistic system benefiting an oligarchy. The Hirak opens on a new historical temporality whose main characteristics we hereby present.