Democratization without democracy [Ressource électronique] : strategic politicians and the emergence of pseudodemocracy in Morocco / Catherine Elizabeth Sweet

Doctor of Philosophy : Political science : University of California : 2001

Bibliogr. p. 418-433

In 1991, Samuel Huntington identified what he called the " third wave" of democratization transforming the global political environment. Although an enormous body of literature has emerged to explain these democratic transitions, significantly less attention has been given to a new authoritarian regime type that has emerged in the third wave's wake: pseudodemocracy. This dissertation argues that, contrary to those who contend authoritarian governments are exceptional, it is instead true democracy that remains unusual. Using Morocco as a case study and drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, this study demonstrates the limits of several competing explanations of democratic transition. Likewise, it provides compelling evidence supporting the importance o f elite w ill in initiating and sustaining democratization. The Moroccan case is particularly important because significantly less attention has been given to regime transformation in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) states than in other regions. Studies that have addressed the relative lack of democratization have tended to be atheoretical and situational, attributing the persistence o f authoritarianism to cultural or religious peculiarities. However, rather than being singled out as the lone regional hold-out against democratizing trends, the MENA should instead be included as part o f a wider, global trend toward pseudodemocracy. In Morocco, the political reforms o f the 1990s that seemed quite dramatic to the outside have in fact scarcely altered the distribution of political power in Morocco. In fact, the experience of political liberalization in Morocco has only strengthened the regime further. International and normative pressures for increased democratization worldwide compelled the king to make institutional changes with a democratic veneer, and as a result, the country now has many trappings of political liberalism: a bicameral parliament, a socialist-led government, countless opposition parties, elections, and the like. The resulting institutions, though, are largely stripped of independent political power, with the king remaining the final arbiter o f power in Morocco. Absent elite w ill for democratization, prospects for democracy in Morocco are bleak.