A Comparative Political Economy of Tunisia and Morocco: On the Outside of Europe Looking In (review)

Gregory White: A Comparative Political Economy of Tunisia and Morocco: On the Outside of Europe Looking In. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001. 252 pages. ISBN 0-7914-5028-7. $20.95.

Countries vary widely in their size, resources, complexity, and development strategy. Similarly, the issues facing governments have significant variation from one country to another, despite similarities that might be suggested by geography, culture, and history. This book by Gregory White convincingly demonstrates that countries cannot develop in isolation from events in a neighboring country or a bloc of countries. In particular, he shows how both the domestic society and the international arena are central to understanding the political economies of Tunisia and Morocco.

White has written a uniquely useful book offering detailed information on the political economies of two middle-income countries strategically located in the Maghreb region of North Africa, across from Southern Europe. His work is a welcome change from many other studies that focus on the larger and more influential economies (Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Korea) and leave the experience of other countries relatively unexamined and unreported.

White begins with a brief but useful discussion of the theoretical framework of his study, which lays the foundation for an examination of the politics of economic change in the Maghrebi countries. His focus is on the role a state plays in a country's economy as a mediating entity between the external and internal realms and as a leader and planner of development strategy. He points out the difficulties that any ruling elite faces in deciding on a development strategy. Various social groups affected by changes in development pose additional challenges.

The book looks back to the period of independence in the late 1950s and works toward the present. Six broad areas are discussed for each country, including the early years of independence, state-led growth, industrial and agricultural policy, the switch to economic liberalism, societal sectors, and the results of policy reform. These countries have experienced significant change in their development strategy, in the context of an expanding private sector, close public scrutiny, and constrained financing.

Especially valuable is that, for each country, the book describes recent changes and policy reforms in order to allow comparison between Tunisia and Morocco. They have had varying degrees of difficulty in attempting to industrialize and achieve economic growth in the years following independence from France. White argues that Tunisia was quicker to adjust to changing circumstances and drafted a development strategy earlier than Morocco. In September 1969, Tunisia's president Habib Bourguiba ended centralized economic planning and began a promarket strategy of economic liberalism (al-infitah). He removed barriers to the flow of trade and capital and promoted a strategy of export-oriented growth that was directed toward European consumers.

White contends that Tunisia was the first to turn to economic liberalism and an opening to Europe largely because "its state elite was flexible and pragmatic and has large support from powerful societal sectors." White reports that Tunisia had impressive economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s, caused by the expanding textile-manufacturing and light industries, remittances from citizens working overseas, and, later, surging oil revenues. At the time, Tunisia was considered a development model for small economies, especially those on the rim of a powerful regional economic bloc.

By contrast, Morocco pursued state-led growth and the "Moroccanization" of the economy in the 1970s. It managed to do so because of its large economy, huge mineral resources (especially phosphate), and the palace's control of the economy. As White states, "The government controlled key sectors of the economy through direct ownership of assets (mines, railroads, dams, and sugar refineries) and equity in key public-holding companies." Its foreign exchange earnings from phosphate helped the economy grow, kept the country from relying on Europe, and insulated it against external...