Political parties in the Maghrib: the Illusion of significance?

Abstract

A large part of the academic and media attention that has focused on political developments in the Maghrib is concerned with the place and role played by political parties. These parties are portrayed by both outside observers and the regimes in the countries themselves as being at the centre of supposed moves towards ‘liberalisation’ and ‘democratisation’ in the region. However, it is argued that the role and significance of parties in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco is in reality fairly limited and certainly different from the role played by political parties in Western Europe where they play a dominant role. The article examines the role played by parties in the political systems of the three countries and sets out some basic characteristics of both the parties and the party political systems in which they operate. Control and interference from the regime is found to be the main characteristic both of parties and the party political system in the three states. Other main common features include the prevalence of single dominant leaders (the phenomenon of the zaïm) in parties, the importance of patron‐client networks and the parallel absence of Western‐style ideologies.

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