State-society relations in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia

Description

In some ways, the Maghreb has avoided the nightmare of civil war and internal strife witnessed by most of its Arab post-revolutionary counterparts. Both Algeria and Morocco experienced a significant level of social mobilisation after the Arab Spring, but the persistence of pre-Spring institutions suggests the existence of complex state-society relations that go beyond the simplistic dichotomy of a society striving for freedom pitted against a stubborn authoritarian state. In Tunisia, which has gone through a difficult overhaul of its political institutions, militant Salafi trends have appeared on the scene, but rather than undermining the democratising political system, they have had the cathartic effect of forcing it and Tunisian citizens more broadly to contend with and confront this type of radicalism. This article suggests that behind this apparent ‘instability’ for Tunisia and ‘stability’ for Morocco and Algeria, hidden underlying processes are taking place, revealing a rather active civil society in both Morocco and Algeria, and the strengthening of the Tunisian democratic transition.

Francesco Cavatorta is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Université Laval in Quebec. He is currently working on a project on political parties in the Maghreb.
Marie-Eve Desrosiers is an MA candidate at the Institut Québécois des Hautes Études Interna tionales at Université Laval in Quebec. She is currently working on a project on political opposition in Saudi Arabia.