Of Regime and Movements: Authoritarian Reform and the 2011 Popular Uprisings in Morocco

Speaker: Frédéric Vairel, University of Ottawa Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Most of the existing literature on the 2011 MENA uprisings looks in isolation at either the contentious politics of popular mobilisation or regime responses to them. Frédéric Vairel proposes a move away from this approach in order to understand the Moroccan case, instead considering both sides together by looking at the 20th February Movement and the regime’s response to it. He argues that by resorting to a number of short and long term reforms; toleration, repression and containment of street mobilisation, the regime was able to avoid producing ‘martyrs’, thereby containing potential backlash of the kind experienced elsewhere in the region. Recorded on 19 May 2015. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'. Image credit: Thierry Ehrman, Flickr. King Mohammed VI of Morocco painted portrait.