Introduction

The country appears to be a happy phenomenon, unique in the third world, a prosperous liberal country. It has a parliamentary body, freely elected in the competition of a plurality of independent political parties. Its politicians are, as politicians go, relatively reasonable men. Monarchical culture revolves around the institution of the monarchy, which fuses both religious authority and political legitimacy. Simultaneously, the monarchy draws its legitimacy from the past by invoking Islam, Arabism, and three centuries of Alawite rule while deriving authority in the present by calling for rationalism, modern leadership, and technocracy. The modernist perspective subscribes to a more visibly secular and radical formula for the development of state and society than does the monarchical culture. The militarist orientation applies to a narrow stratum of Moroccan elite that nonetheless has the inherent capacity to impose its vision of state and society on the majority culture.