Working on the principle that the development of civil society in Morocco from the eighties −closely related with the political ambit and with the economical crisis of the country− has favoured a higher respect for the main human rights, an improvement in the quality of the democratic institutions and a higher share of freedom, the research project has been set in motion with the title “Civil society, human rights and democracy in Morocco”, supervised by professor Carmelo Pérez Beltrán, of the department of Semitic Studies of the University of Granada.
The project, in which participated researchers Laura Feliu (University of Barcelona), Juan Antonio Macías (scholar of the UGR), María Antonia Martínez (University of Málaga), Beatriz Molina (UGR), Raquel Ojeda (University of Jaén), Caterina Olmedo (scholar of the UGR), María Angustias Parejo (UGR), Caridad Ruiz de Almodóvar (UGR) and Inmaculada Szmolka (UGR), intends to identify the social, political and economical changes and transformations that are taking place in Morocco in the last years, as a consequence of the development of a plural and heterogeneous society.
According to the researchers, at the beginning of the eighties, Morocco is immersed in a serious political crisis (disputes between monarchy and the parties of the opposition, and the question of the Sahara) and economical (lack of basic essentials, inauguration of a structural adjustment plan, drastic brake on social budgets related to education, health and employment) that, on the one hand, will cause serious disturbances, harshly repressed by the army in 1981 and 1984 and, on the other hand, will allow the development of certain margins, more or less autonomous of the state institutions, where an important associative movement will be organized and carry out different functions, not without difficulties, swinging from the intervention in different society dominions to political protest.
Resistance civil society
There are several reasons that could justify the late and partial development of civil society in Morocco. The researchers of this project emphasize, between others, “the neo-patrimonial nature characterized by the nationalization and patronage system of society, the predominance of the State over the individual, the anchoring of the patriarchal system and the use of the Islam as a legitimation factor”.
According to the researchers, “the existing bibliography on the subject insists on certain loss of ground in the neo-patrimonial aspect during the eighties that, together with other socioeconomic factors, such as education spreading, population growth, emerging medium-classes, ideological effects of emigration, etc., have allowed the creation of autonomous spaces in which has been possible the consolidation of a resistance civil society against state arbitrary exercise.”
Reference: Prof Carmelo Pérez Beltrán
Department of Semitic Studies
Phone number. 958 248354 / 958 243574 (department)
E-mail carmelop@ugr.es
