ABSTRACT
Despite the announcement of its demise ten years ago (Carothers 2002), the transition paradigm has proven its partial validity in interpreting the political developments in post-Ben Ali Tunisia (Stepan 2012). While the final outcome of the transition is still uncertain, it is nevertheless possible to talk about ‘a transition’ to a different political system. Assessing Tunisian events through the lenses of the four requirements elaborated by Linz and Stepan (1996), 1 it can be argued that Tunisia has witnessed some sort of transition to democracy, which might or might not then be consolidated. In applying the same requirements to the Moroccan case, this chapter demonstrates how the Moroccan regime has been able to carry out a successful reconfiguration of its power, with no meaningful democratization. This has in part been made possible by the inclusion of larger sectors of ‘informal politics’ actors into the constitutional reform process, which has been the instrument the regime used to reconfigure and re-legitimate its hold on power.
