Sylvia I. Bergh - The Politics of Development in Morocco: Local Governance and Participation in North Africa

Sylvia I. Bergh is Associate Professor in Development Management and Governance at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam. She completed both her D.Phil. in Development Studies and her M.Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford, having obtained an MA in Arabic and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews. Bergh has published in several journals, including Mediterranean Politics, the Journal of North African Studies and the International Journal of Public Administration, and edited the book The Redeployment of State Power in the Southern Mediterranean (2013). Before her academic career she worked at the World Bank, both in the President's Office in Washington DC and in the Morocco Country Office.

This book is a meticulously researched work examining the nature of local governance, participation and development in rural Morocco. It is sober reading which challenges the neo-liberal and technocratic approach to development in North Africa and the Middle East. It fills a serious gap in our knowledge of how development processes actually work.

Dawn Chatty, Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, University of Oxford

An extremely valuable in-depth look at the interaction of development and local governance in North Africa. Sylvia I. Bergh's painstaking and illuminating study carefully lays out the ways in which local political actors engage with development projects in southern Morocco. It paints a rich and detailed picture of local political dynamics in a region which has been studied very little. Essential reading for anyone interested in Morocco, local politics in the MENA region and the realities and challenges of development projects.

Michael Willis, University Research Lecturer and King Mohamed VI Fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies, Oriental Institute and St Antony's College, University of Oxford

THE
POLITICS OF
DEVELOPMENT
IN MOROCCO

Local Governance and Participation
in North Africa

S YLVIA I. B ERGH

Published in 2017 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd

London New York

www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2017 Sylvia I. Bergh

The right of Sylvia I. Bergh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

Library of Development Studies 5

ISBN: 978 1 84885 921 0

eISBN: 978 1 78672 116 7

ePDF: 978 1 78673 116 6

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

I dedicate this book to the memory of my father, Sven-Erik Bergh.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Map

Al Haouz Province Commune Poverty Map 2007

Figures

View of the Zat Valley in Tighedouine commune

View of the Azzaden Valley in Ouirgane commune

Diagram

The system of decentralized and deconcentrated government administrations in Morocco, 2009

Tables

A typology of participation

A chronology of the decentralization process in Morocco

Commune development priorities

Revenue composition for rural communes

Revenue composition for Al Haouz province (based on the total for 39 communes), in percentages

Total recurrent and investment revenues for Tighedouine commune (in Dirhams, DH)

Total recurrent and investment revenues for Ouirgane commune (in Dirhams, DH)

Revenue composition for Tighedouine (T) and Ouirgane (O) communes (in percentages)

Expenditure composition for rural communes

Expenditure composition for Al Haouz province (based on the total for 39 communes), in percentages

Evolution of recurrent and capital expenditure as share of total expenditure for Tighedouine (T) and Ouirgane (O) communes (in percentages)

Recurrent expenditure composition for Tighedouine (T) and Ouirgane (O) communes (in percentages)

Capital expenditure composition for Tighedouine (T) and Ouirgane (O) communes (in percentages)

Associations' degree of politicization

Box

A typology of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Morocco

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am extremely grateful to Dawn Chatty, Emerita Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford for her expert academic guidance and personal support during the entire period of researching and writing this book. I am also much indebted to Dr. Michael Willis, King Mohamed VI Fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies at the University of Oxford, for his insightful comments and continued encouragement to work on the issues discussed here. I would also like to thank Samuel Hickey, Professor of Politics and Development at the University of Manchester, for his critical and very valuable remarks which helped me in revising the initial manuscript. I also owe much gratitude to the staff and students at the University of Oxford's Department of International Development, the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam) in The Hague, and the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, where much of this book was written. In particular, I thank my research assistant and current PhD student at the ISS, Daniele Rossi-Doria, for his valuable help in updating the initial manuscript. I am also very grateful to the editors at I.B.Tauris for their patience, valuable comments, and encouragements to see this book published.

Most importantly, I thank all the academics, aid agency staff, and civil servants in Morocco and elsewhere who have helped me with the field research in Morocco, and in particular my former colleagues at the World Bank office in Rabat. My heartfelt thanks are due to the inhabitants of the villages in the case study communes for their extraordinary hospitality and willingness to answer my questions. I remain extremely grateful to my reliable research assistants and translators, Ms. Fadoua Semlali and Ms. Khadija Mazouz.

I thank my family and especially my husband Michel for their unwavering support, patience, and continuous encouragements throughout the ups and downs of the research and writing process.

This book is derived, in part, from an article published in the International Journal of Public Administration, on 20 October 2010, available online:

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Note: All translations are unofficial