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The Regime Game
- Syracuse University Press
- Chapter
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72 3 The Regime Game Opposition parties in electoral authoritarian regimes need to change the rules and practices to gain political power through elections. These parties may at least want to criticize these rules and practices so as to remain credible. An opposition party that takes these regime limitations seriously and focuses on changing them would both try to delegitimize the current regime and try to make the rules more favorable to its own victory. In Morocco, changing the rules is indeed paramount for opposition parties ’ meaningful electoral participation. Although the Islamists were included at a moment of institutional reforms, through which King Hassan II conceded a more important role to Parliament and political parties in the political process, mechanisms to maintain the regime’s grip on outcomes were preserved, and even some new ones were introduced. In Morocco, as elsewhere, one way to harm regime legitimacy is to boycott or threaten to boycott elections or at least to denounce their manipulation. As for other electoral authoritarian regimes, for Morocco the domestic image and, maybe even more important, the external image of the political system as being in a democratization process are relevant means to ensure regime persistence. For that purpose, the organization of elections perceived as somewhat free, fair, and transparent is necessary. Elections are typically moments when the country is in the spotlight of the international media and observers and are thus an important opportunity for denouncing regime practices. Challenging the regime’s democratic image can also present a criticism of political and human rights violations in a way that blames them on the system, not just on some faulty individuals. Besides such types of public pressure, a party may also focus on pressuring for the adjustment of constitutional provisions or laws crucial to electoral competition . A peculiarity of Morocco compared to other electoral authoritarian regimes The Regime Game | 73 is that, as a monarchy, major disadvantages for opposition parties include not only those provisions regarding electoral competition, but also those that prevent an elected government from governing. The country has several formal and informal rules that secure the supremacy of the monarchy as a ruling and governing institution. Focusing on the regime game thus means focusing on steps to constitutionalize the monarchy. Crucial for the preservation of the monarchy ’s authority in Morocco is Article 19, defining the king as the “Commander of the Faithful.” Taking on Article 19 is, however, only a hypothetical option because accepting the king’s religious legitimacy is a prerequisite of inclusion in the political arena. Even a mild questioning of the king’s status as “Commander of the Faithful” clearly violates the rules applying to the legal opposition. Indeed, Justice and Charity’s rejection of that status for the king is one of the reasons why it is not a legal organization. More practically, the monarchy’s executive and legislative power is secured via the “ministries of sovereignty,” whose ministers are appointed directly by the king, not by the prime minister. This authority, however , is not enshrined in the Constitution. Article 24 of the Moroccan Constitution simply states that the king appoints the prime minister, but that the other ministers are appointed by the king in consultation with the prime minister. Therefore, which ministries are “ministries of sovereignty” is a matter of acceptance of the king’s appointment of their ministers and ultimately of bargaining power. Another institutional mechanism that limits the power of the government is the large prerogatives of the upper house, introduced in the very reform that provided for the universal election of all the members of Parliament. Finally, the electoral law, as is often the case in electoral authoritarian regimes, also secures the power of the monarchy with respect to political parties. At the Islamists’ entry into Parliament, the voting system was single-ballot majority, a system that encourages both the fragmentation of the party system and the limited role of parties in favor of notables. As a consequence, it has hampered the emergence of one party as the major player in Parliament and the formation of a government composed of less than at least five parties. Although the electoral system is only a procedural rather than a fundamental dimension of the political system, a reform of the electoral law would have very important practical implications. When the PJD entered the political arena, it had to develop a stance vis-à-vis the quality of elections and the strength of demands for institutional reforms. Its strategies in the...