London, Hurst & Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2025, 424 p.
Analyses of state power in Morocco have always been mired in exoticism or exceptionalism. The Kingdom is said to be a prototype of political immobility; a country caught in the authoritarian and conservative grip of its monarch, known as the ‘Commander of the Faithful’; a state in need of democratisation, but also a bastion of moderate Islam. Drawing on thirty years of fieldwork, interviews and extensive primary documentation, Béatrice Hibou and Mohamed Tozy reveal how demographic, political and cultural changes have transformed Morocco’s government and modes of domination, from its pre-colonial past to the present. Interrogating the ideas of ‘Empire’ and ‘Nation-state’ as particular forms of rule, they examine the legacy of the centuries-long Sharifian Empire, in relation to the contemporary neoliberal government. They show how imperial traditions and the modern state co-exist today, in an intricate tapestry of seemingly contradictory power relations, different understandings of legitimacy, and competing visions of authority, sovereignty and responsibility.
