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Morocco Between Decentralization and Recentralization: Encountering the State in the ‘Useless Morocco’

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Local Politics and Contemporary Transformations in the Arab World

Part of the book series: Governance and Limited Statehood Series ((GLS))

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Abstract

‘Decentralization in Morocco? If that is your topic the answer is easy, we don’t have any decentralization in Morocco.’1 Many of the interviews I conducted during my fieldwork in Luant2 pointed in this or a similar direction. Yet, decentralization is a concept intensively discussed in the Moroccan context. It is framed as a formula to overcome development inequalities between urban centers and rural areas, as a method to increase the participation of all parts of the population, and thus as a feature of the so-called ‘democratic transition’ and, finally, as a way to absorb secession efforts.3

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© 2013 Anja Hoffmann

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Hoffmann, A. (2013). Morocco Between Decentralization and Recentralization: Encountering the State in the ‘Useless Morocco’. In: Bouziane, M., Harders, C., Hoffmann, A. (eds) Local Politics and Contemporary Transformations in the Arab World. Governance and Limited Statehood Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-33869-3_8

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