This paper looks at Algerian state-society relations in contemporary Algeria to explain ‘why no Algerian Arab Spring.’ Explanations for why no Algerian Spring have focused on the ferocity of the Algerian state, massive distribution of hydrocarbon rent, or the fatigue of a society emerging from a brutal civil war. Problematically, the same explanations, however, have been frequently used to explain persistent authoritarianism in Algeria. While those arguments go a certain distance in explaining the Algerian case, they miss larger developments between state, society, and market in Algeria, which have radically changed the way politics link the citizen to the state and regime. Focusing on a steady decline in voter turnout, citizen confidence in state, party, and civic groups in tandem with a steady rise in localized demonstration, this paper argues that the organic link between state and society is broken. The system of multiparty politics of the 1990s and 2000s is broken. In its wake, Algeria has entered the politics of riots.