الانتقال الديمقراطي في المغرب : حدود التحول

Abstract EN

The present paper investigates the transformation limits in democratic transition in Morocco by exploring the role of the 2011 Constitution in putting Morocco the rails of democratic transition, analyzing the political theories that attempted to explain the nature of the Moroccan political system and its relation to democracy, as well as testing the elements of the democratic transition as incorporated in the 2011 Constitution.

The researcher describes the Moroccan political system, the process of democratic transition, and political and constitutional factors in Morocco.

The researcher also reviews new authoritarian concepts, excessive violence and cultural basis for authority in Morocco, as well as obstacles to democratic transition by highlighting the continued monarchy dominationand security governance in Morocco.

The researcher believes that Morocco has witnessed two attempts of democratic transition: the first was during the period in which the historical opposition parties led the government, and formed what is known as the government of rotation (1998- 2002).

The second is the current one in the awake of the strong popularly mobility witnessed in Morocco, as a result of the Arab revolutionary wave (or so-called spring Arab).

This mobility was led by 20 February YouthMovement, supported by leftist and Islamist forces, and resulted in the adoption of constitutional reforms, and later brought the opposition Justice and Development Party to government leadership.

The researcher indicates that since King Mohammed VI took power, two competing political theories were presented to assess the Moroccan political system performance and reforms it underwent: the first supposes that the ongoing reforms are conducted mainly with the purpose of renewing the regime’s legitimacy, rather than democratizing it.

The second assumes that these reforms are real, putting Moroccan political system on the way of transition towardsdemocracy, however, this process is still in the phase of taking shape and flowing.

The researcher concludes that the new authoritarian theory assumes the reforms conducted by King Mohammed VI are just new authoritarian-reinforcing process, thus, there is no “democratic transition” to discuss; there is rather “authoritarian transition”.

However, the theory acknowledges that there are difficulties in the classification of the two sides: the first is that “it is difficultto assert that the Moroccan regime shifts are part of anintentional integrated process intending to take it out of the authoritarian circle and into democracy circle", and the second is that "it is difficult to deny the existence of reforms conducted by this regime, though it is hard to consider these reforms part of a democratic transition scheme.