Civil Society and Political Change in Morocco

Civil society is a contested concept in North Africa and the Middle East, as governments have tried to co-opt leading members of civil society in its technocratic view of governance. This has helped to defuse some of the core ideas that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been promoting.Have organisations of civil society constituted a factor in their own right as contributors to the political change in Morocco?Civil Society and Political Change in Morocco is an attempt at understanding how the dynamics between co-optation and independent articulation takes place, and it analyzes this in Morocco, a country that boasts political change as one of its core features under Mohamed VI. The book covers three overlapping areas that have been significant in what Moroccans understand by rights-oriented politics; human rights, women's rights and Berber rights. It is in these that James N. Sater argues that non-governmental actors of civil society have been able to initiate political discourses and influence decision-making. The means by which they have influenced the decision-making process in these areas was their access to the mass media, and a general mobilisation that was, at times, favoured by international and domestic factors that were both political and economic.Combining detailed literature surveys with theoretical issues, this book is a compelling and dynamic new case to the understanding of the political debate in Morocco. As such, it will be of interest to both students and researchers alike in the field of contemporary Middle Eastern and North African history and society.James N. Sater is Assistant Professor at Al Akhawayn University, Morocco.Sater, James N. is the author of 'Civil Society and Political Change in Morocco ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780415412421 and ISBN 0415412420.