Mobilizations in a hybrid regime: The 20th February Movement and the Moroccan regime

Abstract

In the context of the wave of protests that shook the Arab world, Morocco is a particularly interesting case to address the problem of collective action and transformation of hybrid political regimes. This article describes the historical trajectory of recent protests in the country, the emergence and structuring of the 20th February Movement (M20F) and the neutralization strategy pursued by the Moroccan political regime. Taking up the idea that the success of collective action to transform a political regime is related to the ability of its promoters to legitimize their cause beyond their original base, the main argument is that both the nature of the 20th February Movement – marked by a profound heterogeneity and dualism – and the hybrid configuration of the Moroccan political regime – which offers a variety of repertoires of legitimation for the management of the protests – favoured the failure of the protest movement.

Plus ça Change? Observing the Dynamics of Morocco's ‘Arab Spring’ in the High Atlas

“…Interview 5, 2014. Of course the constitution is only one of out of many dimensions of the regime's response to the protests (see Desrues, 2013;Fernández Molina, 2011;Hoffman & König, 2013). 39.…”

Presentación del monográfico: “Los jóvenes en el mundo árabe de la "Primavera" democrática al "Invierno" yihadista?: participación y activismo político y social”. Introduction to the Special Issue: “Young People in the Arab World from the Democratic ‘Spring’ to the Jihadist ‘Winter’?: Participation and Social and Political Activism”

“…No sólo en España, sino también en otros países con una más amplia tradición de estudios sobre el mundo árabe -Francia, Reino Unido, Estados Unidos--, poco se sabe con respecto a estos jóvenes activistas que participaron en las protestas del año 2011 y que en muchos casos militaban previamente y siguen militando hoy en día en organizaciones de la sociedad civil de sus respectivos países. Igualmente, cinco años después de la "Primavera árabe", las dificultades que padece el proceso democrático de consolidación institucional en Túnez (Chouikha y Gobe, 2012;Gobe, 2013;Gobe y Chouikha, 2015), el alcance limitado de las reformas en Marruecos (Desrues, 2012b(Desrues, , 2013(Desrues, , 2014(Desrues, y 2015Parejo Fernández, 2015), los cambios de gobiernos sin reformas estructurales en Jordania (Legrand, 2014;Melian, 2015), la restauración del poder castrense en Egipto (González, 2014;Martínez Fuente, 2015), la guerra civil en Siria (Burgat y Paoli, 2013;Álvarez--Ossorio Alvariño, 2015) o Libia García Guindo y Mesa García, 2015), así como el auge del yihadismo encarnado en el Estado islámico en Siria e Iraq, todos estos procesos desconciertan y hacen que florezcan los discursos "orientalistas", incluso en el propio mundo árabe, que hablan de nuevo de un excepcionalismo árabe, en el que resurgiría la sombra amenazante de autocracias de inspiración islámica (Szmolka, 2015a).…”

Plus ça Change? Observing the Dynamics of Morocco's ‘Arab Spring’ in the High Atlas

“…While quite a few studies have examined the F20M, its strategies and outcomes (see Benchemsi, 2012;Dalmasso, 2012;Desrues, 2012Desrues, , 2013Fernández Molina, 2011;González Riera, 2011;Hoffmann & König, 2013;Pace & Cavatorta, 2012), this article focuses on centre -periphery relations, in terms of the organizational and ideological linkages and commonalities as well as on the divergences between activists in urban and rural areas. It also examines the main means of communications between these groups, and considers their perceptions in terms of outcomes, in particular certain provisions in the new constitution.…”