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Political pluralism in Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

I. William Zartman
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Le système politique rnarocain est original en Afrique, non seulernent parce que le Maroc est doté d'un régime monarchique rnais aussi parce que ce pays est Ie seul à avoir tenté et poursuivi depuis son accession à l’indépendance une experience de multipartisme.

Societies are generally neither monolithic nor homogeneous; every political system must deal with the problem of pluralism in some way. But political systems tend to be organized hierarchically, with power and authority concentrated at the top. The confrontation of social pluralism and political concentration can well give rise to tensions, since centralized political structures deal with diversified social interests. Tensions are also likely to grow out of pluralism within the political structure itself, as factions form on the bases of personalities, programmes and interests. Factions can exist within a single organizational or institutional framework, or they can be reflected in competing parties, checking and balancing institutions, and separated powers. The single-party regime has often become a familiar way of containing these tensions and factions in developing countries, particularly in Africa, and the existence of many African single-party regimes has led to efforts to discover the common elements behind the common phenomenon. The purpose of this study is not to challenge these explanations, but to look more broadly into the nature of interests, factions and power in developing polities, suggesting a model of political development that puts both unipartism and political pluralism in their places.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , 01 December 1967 , pp. 568 - 583
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1967

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References

1 ‘Où en sont les partis politiques marocains?’Maghreb 19 July 1965.

2 See, among others, Coleman, James S., ‘The Emergence of African Political Parties,’ in Grove Haines, C., ed., Africa Today, Baltimore, 1955, pp. 226–7Google Scholar; William Zartman, I., Problems of New Power, New York, 1964, pp. 249–53;Google Scholar Micaud, Charles et al, Tunisia: The Politics of Modernization, New York, 1964, esp. pp. 3–6;Google Scholar Moore, Clement H., Tunisia Since Independence, Berkeley, California, 1965.Google Scholar

3 On Morocco, see Abun‐Nasr, J., ‘The Salafiyya Movement in Morocco,’ in Wallerstein, Immanuel, Social Change: The Colonial Situation, New York, 1966, pp. 489–502;Google Scholar Rezette, Robert, Les Partis Politiques Marocains, Paris, 1955 Google Scholar.

4 See Apter, David, The Politics of Modernization, Chicago, 1965, pp. 181–2Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 181.

6 On integration and allocation functions, see William Zartman, I., ‘Morocco’s Modernizing Monarchy', in John Mikhail, ed., Political Modernization in the Middle East and North Africa, Princeton, 1966 Google Scholar.

7 On the no‐party state, see Wallerstein, Immanuel ‘The Decline of the Party in Single‐Party African States’, in LaPalombara, Joseph and Weiner, Myron, eds., Political Parties and Political Development, Princeton, 1967.Google Scholar

8 On revolution, see Brinton, Crane, The Anatomy of Revolution, New York, 1952;Google Scholar Friedrich, Carl J., ed., Revolution, New York, 1966;Google Scholar Johnson, Chalmers A., Revolutionary Change, Boston, 1966 Google Scholar.

9 On the proper sequence of stages, see Micaud, op. cit., p. 5.

10 The following discussion follows the excellent article by Octave Marais, ‘La classe dirigeante au Maroc,’Revue franfaise de science polirique, August 1964, XIV, 4, pp. 709–37. See also André Adam, ‘Naissance et developpement d’une classe moyenne au Maroc,' Bulletin Economique et Social du Maroc, LXVIII, 4, 1955, pp. 489–92; Marie Bousquet, ‘Les rapports de la bourgeoisie et de la monarchic au Maroc,’Les Temps Modernes, April 1962, pp. 1483–92.

11 See Ashford, Douglas E., Political Change in Morocco, Princeton, 1961, pp. 302–333 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 ‘The importance of the political party in providing legitimacy and stability in modernizing political system varies inversely with the institutional inheritance of the system from traditional society’, Huntington, Samuel P., ‘Political Development and Political Decay’, World Politics xvII, 3 04 1965 , p. 424 Google Scholar.

13 This process is spelled out in William Zartman, I., Destiny of a Dynasty, Columbia, 1964 Google Scholar.

14 On the National Consultative Assembly, see, in addition to the above, Pierre Ebrard, ‘L’assemblée nationale consultative marocaine', in Annuaire de l' Afrique du Nord, 1962, Paris, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1964, pp. 35–81.

15 No one has ever been able to document the extent to which this tactic was conscious or planned, rather than simply instinctive and informal.

16 See Jules, and Aubin, Jim, ‘Le Maroc en suspens’, Annuaire de l' Afrique du Nord, 1964, Paris, 1966, p. 77 Google Scholar.

17 The UMT declared its non‐partisan position in its January 1963 congress, in exchange for palace support against the UGTM; the latter, Istiglal‐affiliated, is less effective in any role because of its smaller membership. Both unions, however, were reduced to pressure groups because of the need to defend workers' interests against the growing mass of unemployed.

18 A similar attempt, with the same participants (including the then premier), was discussed in early 1958, before the formation of the ‘homogeneous’ Istiglal government, but failed because of Istiglal strength and ‘king’s men's' indecision; Octave Marais, ‘L’élection de la chambre des representants du Maroc', Annuaire de l'Afrique du Nord, 1963, Paris, 1965, p. 85.

19 Details taken from the careful analysis in ibid., pp. 85–106, with some differences in interpretation on the nature of the Popular Movement.

20 See Montagne, Robert et al, Naissance du Prolétariat Marocain, Paris, n.d. (1951)Google Scholar.

21 Marais, op. cit., p. 97.

22 There were threats to do so in the election campaign, however; see ibid. The plots of 1963–4, to the extent that they existed, also represented a momentary rise of those who considered challenging the political system.

23 On minimum coalitions, see Rikcr, William H., The Theory of Political Coalitions, New Haven, 1962 Google Scholar.