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Abstract
Morocco and Mauritania's regimes differ radically in their political structures and contemporary histories, yet they employed several similar strategies to secure survival during the Arab uprisings. Besides limited repression, constitutional reforms and palliative concessions, both regimes also used a distinct strategy of co-optation to aid authoritarian resilience. Targeting rural politicians with weak party affiliations for co-optation, regimes used it to build and reinforce loyalist political parties in the late 2000s. Once the uprisings began, both regimes deployed these loyalist parties to undertake counter-revolutionary activities to contain and counterbalance the power of youth and Islamist movements.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Holger Albrecht, Steven Brooke, Jason Brownlee Sarah Bush, Francesco Cavatorta, John Entelis, Mehran Kamrava, Kevin Koehler, William Lawrence, Adria Lawrence, Tse-min Lin, Ian Lustick, Marc Lynch, Jocelyn Mitchell, Lawrence Rubin, Frederic Volpi, Eva Wegner, Michael Willis, and anonymous reviewers for comments. Thanks also to workshop participants at APSA 2013, Project on Middle East Political Science 2015, and the University of Tennessee. Thank you to Abdellahi Ould Mohamedou Ould Idriss and Dr. Abye Tasse at the University of Nouakchott for hosting my visit to Mauritania.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Storm (Citation2007) provides an excellent introduction to Moroccan parties.
2. David Waldner has used quantitative data to re-examine Huntington's thesis in ‘rural incorporation and regime survival’.
3. See original, full theory: Leveau R. Le Fellah Marocain: Défenseur du Trône (Citation1976).
4. World Bank urbanization statistics, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?page = 1
5. El-Omari, Illyas, PAM vice president. Interviewed by author. Rabat, 3 August 2011.
6. Chamikh, Mohammed, UPR secretariat general member. Author interview. Nouakchott, 3 March 2012.
7. el-Ouadie, Aziz, PAM secretariat general member. Author interview. Casablanca, 23 July 2013.
8. Abdellatif Zahar, PAM local politician and campaign organizer. Author interview. Casablanca, 21 July 2013.
9. El-Ouadie, Aziz. Author interview.
10. Moussa Demba Sow, UPR secretariat general member. Author interview. Nouakchott, 1 March 2012.
11. Wegner's (Citation2011) party typology defined these parties.
12. Exceptions include the excellent, pioneering studies of Pellicer and Wegner (Citation2012, Citation2013).
13. Pamphlet, Union of Progressive Forces, 14 February 2012, 1.
14. Houda Salhi, February 20th leader, Gadalinaa conference, Mohammed VI Theatre, Casablanca, 16 April 2011.