The Predicament of Freedoms under Public Pandemic Protocol: Defects in the Political Compact in Morocco and Algeria

Abstract

This paper aims to shed light on the state of the political compact in Morocco and Algeria under the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing specifically on the damage to basic freedoms and rights during the health emergency in the two countries. In identifying the source of this damage, the study examines the issue from two directions: from the bottom up, it looks at primordial sentiments at the bedrock of society and their impact on others’ right to health safety from the virus; looking downward, it focuses on the setbacks to political freedoms resulting from the political exploitation of the pandemic, where information technology allowed the mobile surveillance of activists. The paper relies on a database of qualitative and quantitative data to confirm its hypotheses about the predicament of rights and liberties in the two countries under study, concluding that the precariousness of these freedoms stems from political regimes’ determination to perpetuate primordial sentiments in political culture.