Based on biographical interviews with former member of the Parti de l’avant-garde socialiste (PAGS), this paper aims to reflect upon their place vis-à-vis the Algerian regime. The PAGS was an underground organization created in the wake of the 1965 military coup that brought Houari Boumediene to power, as an heir to the Algerian communist party (PCA). While part of its leadership was detained, the party followed a policy known as “critical support” of the regime, supporting only the left leaning policies. This papers offers to look at the question from the perspective of individual itineraries of PAGS activists, rather then from that of party line: many of them were in fact involved in the State, in public companies or public services. They were also active in mass organizations that were connected to the FLN. Because many Pagsists were highly educated, they were able to hold high responsibilities, including at government level, while still reporting to and receiving instructions from their underground party. How did individuals balance participation in the State and party activities? Did they conceive of themselves as opposing the regime? Despite their remaining outside the FLN, “state edification tasks” were highly valued and the State was at the core of their ideology and practice. The analysis of these itineraries over time will provide material for reflecting upon the evolution of the FLN-State. Just how capable of attracting beyond the limits of the FLN in the 1980s, by comparison with the 1970s? And how well did it do with the younger generations of activists, who joined the PAGS in the 1980s? And while more and more activists were involved in associations – rather then parties –, did the Pagsists themselves try to consolidate the connection between their party and the State?