Authoritarian resilience and party competition: Moroccan legislative elections under Mohamed VI’s reign (2002-2021)

Autor principal:
Inmaculada Szmolka Vida (Universidad de Granada)
Programa:
Sesión 7, Sesión 7
Día: viernes, 9 de julio de 2021
Hora: 09:00 a 10:45
Lugar: Online

This paper aims to explain the role of legislative elections as a tool of authoritarian resilience in Morocco. Elections do matter and are worth investigating as autonomous processes even in authoritarian settings (Cavatorta forthcoming). Elections are also part of the ordinary course of political life in pluralist autocracies (Brumberg, 2002; Lust-Okar, 2009; Schedler 2013). The mere recurrence of elections can change the political landscape (Croissant and Hellmann, 2017; Schedler, 2013). Likewise, elections are relevant for both the regime and political parties in order to adopt their respective political strategies and test social trends (Bayat, 2002; Brown, 2012; Masoud, 2008). Moreover, elections constitute the arena for adjudicating the spoils of power among the ruling elite and regulate access to state institutions for opposition groups (Albrecht, 2010).

The paper, firstly, reviews and discusses the current literature on authoritarian resilience in relation to their role in the persistence or change of political regimes. Secondly, the main dimensions of party competition are analyzed in the legislative elections held under Mohamed VI’s reign (2002-2021), such as fragmentation, concentration, competitiveness, and volatility (at electoral and parliamentary level). Thirdly, the consequences of these dimensions are studied in relation to representation, government formation and resilience of Moroccan authoritarian regime.

Palabras clave: Authoritarian resilience, elections, Morocco, party competition