The Arab Spring in North Africa: Still Winter in Morocco?

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Morocco, presenting research conducted on the Moroccan blogosphere between 2007 and 2009, before the Arab Spring, in which a burgeoning civil society space with some evidence of collective action was apparent. Despite this online activism and the highest level of Internet penetration in North Africa, the Moroccan government withstood Arab Spring protests. While the religious and political legitimacy of the Moroccan monarchy is a key factor in explaining this difference, there are also significant socioeconomic and linguistic cleavages that were mirrored in the online space. Nevertheless, the Moroccan blogosphere leading up to the events of 2011 provides a rich public narrative that includes collective action unique to this historically authoritarian North African country. The chapter will utilize selected collective action literature to examine the nature of this narrative and then examine it in light of several Arab Spring protests that did occur in Morocco, concluding that, while the monarchy retains its power and online collective action does not reach the majority of citizens, online social and political expression do represent a potentially significant development in Morocco’s public sphere.