Gender Policy and Authoritarian Flexibility: The Women’s Quota in Morocco as an Instrument of Regime Support

Abstract

This paper attempts to answer the following question: How has the hybrid nature of the Moroccan political system resulted in political liberalisation and liberal reforms that expanded opportunities for women’s political empowerment in elected institutions, without making the regime vulnerable to the uncertainty of genuine democracy? Since the 2002 elections and the 2011 constitutional and legal reforms, the Moroccan regime has been among the hybrid political regimes that have formulated policies to empower women in elected institutions through a quota system, primarily to bolster the regime rather than consolidate democracy. This study shows that the numerical increase in women elected to the House of Representatives on the national list did not so much achieve true political empowerment as introduce a new glass ceiling that limits women’s candidacy and election outside the designated women’s list. Moreover, in many electoral cycles, the quota system has become less an instrument for political empowerment and the enhancement of female representation than a means of social reproduction and a tool to serve and reinforce political clientelism and party patronage.