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Morocco (including Western Sahara)

From the late seventeenth century, with the interruption of a twentieth-century French and Spanish colonial protectorate, Morocco has been ruled by a monarchy claiming descent from Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Despite moves in the direction of parliamentary democracy, ultimate power lies in the hands of the king.

Hopes for change were high following the death in 1999 of King Hasan II, who had presided over an era of repression and mass political trials known as the “years of lead.” His son Mohamed VI, hailed as the “king of the poor,” immediately dismissed an interior minister responsible for many regime excesses and subsequently created a commission to document the abuse and torture of former political prisoners. Yet, following the 2002 parliamentary elections, the king appointed a prime minister who is not affiliated with any party, thereby casting doubt on the regime’s commitment to devolving power away from the throne.

Morocco has been riven for centuries by tensions between more developed cities and the chronically poor countryside, a division that partly corresponds to that between the Arab and Berber populations. In the 1970s, there were several movements for local autonomy in peripheral Berber-speaking regions directed against the centralizing, Arab-identified state. In 2001, the king moved toward defusing the old tensions by acknowledging Berber identity as “a principal element in the national culture.”

Poverty and joblessness remain great challenges. The government relies heavily upon emigration to Europe to ameliorate domestic unemployment and bolster household incomes with money sent home.

In 1975, Hasan II sent Moroccan soldiers into Western Sahara, a phosphate-rich territory south of the kingdom that had previously been under Spanish colonial rule. He then mobilized the “Green March” of 350,000 Moroccan civilians to occupy and assert Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara. Most never crossed, but many did. Morocco’s claim is unrecognized by the UN, which since 1991 has been trying to broker a referendum on independence in the territory. The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which has UN observer status as the representative of the Sahrawi people, supports such a referendum, but Morocco has successfully resisted it.

Facts and Figures »