Jordan and Morocco: The Palace Gambit

Ruling monarchies in Morocco and Jordan outlasted the Arab Spring through familiar tactics such as halfhearted reforms, as well as upgraded strategies of management. No longer intent on avoiding elections, now these regimes welcome them in order to expose opposition as too incompetent to govern even when given the opportunity. They no longer deny royalist absolutism to the public, but rather embrace it as the ideal guarantor of normalcy and stability. Adapting back, however, is a new generation of youth activists who elude their regimes’ grasp and radically challenge the legitimacy of monarchical governance. The potential for revolution still exists.