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Do You Have "Connections" at the Courthouse? An Original Survey on Informal Influence and Judicial Rulings in Morocco

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Abstract

Under what conditions do citizens of developing countries view judges as neutral and fair or biased and arbitrary? This study addresses this topic through an original, nationally representative survey from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Conducted in Morocco, the survey is the first of its kind to gauge attitudes about how a citizen’s informal influence facilities getting favorable rulings from judges. It finds that 82 percent of respondents believe that citizens with “connections”—known as wasta in Arabic—get favorable rulings. Yet some citizens more strongly value informal influence, especially rural individuals, women, and ethnic minorities. The survey shows that believing in informal influence considerably lowers citizen trust in the authoritarian regime’s courts and institutions, which some scholars consider an asset for democratization. However, because the citizens most likely to value informal influence are marginalized or embedded in regime clientelism, their low trust may not easily translate into strong advocacy for democracy. Meanwhile, the citizens most able to advocate for democratization—the Francophone petite bourgeoisie—disproportionately deny the importance of informal influence in regime institutions.

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... 21 Women make up 47% of local council representatives despite strict vertical and horizontal parity laws aimed at increasing women's representation to 50%. Women represent less than 20% of municipal council heads (mayors) (BabNet 2018).Footnote 18 (continued) der gap also extends to key political attitudes, such as trust in political institutions and beliefs about the neutrality of those institutions(Buehler 2016).Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
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... In our research experience, largely in the context of the Middle East, the efficacy of "gatekeepers" is uncertain as individuals often exaggerate their connectedness (wasta) and are unable to provide promised access (Buehler 2016). Although this example may be research project dependent, the reliance on "gatekeepers" means that some qualitative research is dependent upon who grants access, how connected the gatekeeper is, and to whom access is granted. ...
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... En sociedades con alta calidad del gobierno, donde las instituciones públicas proporcionan servicios con imparcialidad, los ciudadanos que han sido víctimas de un delito pueden satisfacer las necesidades de acceso a servicios de salud y sociales y de acceso a la justicia por medio de los canales institucionales. Mientras que donde las instituciones del Estado son parciales o corruptas los ciudadanos que han sido victimizados buscan resolver sus necesidades mediante formas particularistas de acceso (Buehler, 2016) debido a que tienen bajos niveles de confianza en las instituciones y de confianza interpersonal generalizada. Rothstein & Teorell (2008) conceptualizan la calidad del gobierno como imparcialidad en el ejercicio del poder público, lo cual consiste en que, al implementar leyes y políticas, los funcionarios del gobierno no deben tener en cuenta nada sobre el ciudadano/caso que no se encuentre estipulado en la política o la ley. ...
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... Wasta is defined as "a form of favoritism that provides individuals with advantages not because of merit or right but because of who they know" (Mohamed and Mohamad, 2011, p. 412). There is little research on wasta despite its critical role in understanding business success (Berger et al., 2014, p. 461), internationalization processes (Al-Ramahi, 2008), Arabic culture (Hutchings and Weir, 2006a;Velez-Calle et al., 2015) and the legal system[2] (Buehler, 2016). ...
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Democracy-building efforts from the early 1990s on have funneled billions of dollars into nongovernmental organizations across the developing world, with the U.S. administration of George W. Bush leading the charge since 2001. But are many such "civil society" initiatives fatally flawed? Focusing on the Palestinian West Bank and the Arab world, Barriers to Democracy mounts a powerful challenge to the core tenet of civil society initiatives: namely, that public participation in private associations necessarily yields the sort of civic engagement that, in turn, sustains effective democratic institutions. Such assertions tend to rely on evidence from states that are democratic to begin with. Here, Amaney Jamal investigates the role of civic associations in promoting democratic attitudes and behavioral patterns in contexts that are less than democratic. Jamal argues that, in state-centralized environments, associations can just as easily promote civic qualities vital to authoritarian citizenship--such as support for the regime in power. Thus, any assessment of the influence of associational life on civic life must take into account political contexts, including the relationships among associations, their leaders, and political institutions. Barriers to Democracy both builds on and critiques the multifaceted literature that has emerged since the mid-1990s on associational life and civil society. By critically examining associational life in the West Bank during the height of the Oslo Peace Process (1993-99), and extending her findings to Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan, Jamal provides vital new insights into a timely issue.
Book
First published in 2007, The Struggle for Constitutional Power broke new ground on the study of politics of courts in authoritarian regimes. The Struggle for Constitutional Power examines the politics of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court, the most important experiment in constitutionalism in the Arab world. The Egyptian regime established a surprisingly independent constitutional court to address a series of economic and administrative pathologies that lie at the heart of authoritarian political systems. Although the Court helped to institutionalize state functions and attract investment, it also opened new avenues through which rights advocates and opposition parties could challenge the regime. The book examines the dynamics of legal mobilization in this most unlikely political environment.
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Since it was first published in 2006, this concise overview of the making of the contemporary Middle East has become essential reading for students and general readers who want to gain a better understanding of this diverse region. Writing for a wide audience, Mehran Kamrava takes us from fall of the Ottoman Empire to today, exploring along the way such central issues as the dynamics of economic development, authoritarian endurance, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. For this new, thoroughly revised edition, he has brought the book fully up to date by incorporating events and issues of the past few years. The Modern Middle East now includes information about the June 2009 Iranian presidential elections and their aftermath, changes precipitated so far by the Obama administration, Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008, the effects of globalization on economic development, and more.
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Why did colonial subjects mobilize for national independence from the French empire? This question has rarely been posed because the answer appears obvious: in the modern era, nationalism was bound to confront colonialism. This book argues against taking nationalist mobilization for granted. Contrary to conventional accounts, it shows that nationalism was not the only or even the primary form of anti-colonialism. Drawing on archival sources, comparative historical analysis, and case studies, Lawrence examines the movements for political equality that emerged in the French empire during the first half of the twentieth century. Within twenty years, they had been replaced by movements for national independence in the majority of French colonies, protectorates, and mandates. Lawrence shows that elites in the colonies shifted from demands for egalitarian reforms to calls for independent statehood only where the French refused to grant political rights to colonial subjects. Where rights were granted, colonial subjects opted for further integration and reform. Nationalist discourses became dominant as a consequence of the failure to reform. Mass protests then erupted in full force when French rule was disrupted by war or decolonization.
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Using data from a survey of 200 Moroccan and Algerian parliamentarians, this article assesses the relationship between parliamentarian gender, quotas, and constituency service provision to females. The findings suggest that while electing women increases service provision to females, quotas are needed to create mandates in clientelistic, patriarchal settings, where serving women is a less effective electoral strategy than serving men. Deputies elected through quotas are more responsive to women than members of either sex elected without quotas. The article extends a theory of homosocial capital to explain gender gaps in parliamentarians' supply of and citizens' demand for services. By demonstrating a novel mandate effect and framing mandates in a positive light, the article extends the literature on gender, representation, and clientelism; urges scholars to examine service representation; and supports quotas to promote women's access to services, political participation, and electability.
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This book is premised on the notion that subnational undemocratic regimes (SURs) within countries not only differ among each other but that they maintain different relations with the federal government, which is why they are reproduced differently. The book argues that alternative pathways of SUR continuity result first and foremost from the capacity (or lack thereof) of democratic presidents to wield power over SURs and autocrats. If presidents have the (fiscal or partisan) resources to induce cooperation from subnational autocrats and can thus secure credible and routine political support, the former have strong incentives to invest in the continuity and stability of undemocratic provincial regimes and autocrats. Under these circumstances, SUR reproduction from above takes place. Conversely, if presidents fail to exert effective power and are prevented from disciplining subnational autocrats via fiscal or partisan means, they will implement policies to oppose and weaken SURs. This does not necessarily lead to SUR breakdown. Local variables, such as subnational autocrats' capacity to ensure party elite unity and/or mass political support, shape autocrats' ability to counterbalance presidential attempts at destabilization, and also allow autocrats to keep their regimes alive. Where this occurs, SUR self-reproduction takes place. This explanation of SUR continuity is tested in contemporary Argentina and Mexico using a multi-method approach. Both quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as cross-national and within-country comparisons, are employed to test pathways of SUR continuity in two of Latin America's largest countries.
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Case study researchers use diverse methods to select their cases, a matter that has elicited considerable comment and no little consternation. Of all these methods, perhaps the most controversial is the crucial-case method, first proposed by Harry Eckstein several decades ago. Since Eckstein’s influential essay, the crucial-case approach has been used in a multitude of studies across several social science disciplines and has come to be recognized as a staple of the case study method. Yet the idea of any single case playing a crucial (or critical) role is not widely accepted. In this article, the method of the crucial case is explored, and a limited defense (somewhat less expansive than that envisioned by Eckstein) of that method is undertaken. A second method of case-selection, closely associated with the logic of the crucial case, is introduced: the pathway case.
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Public opinion polls demonstrate that Arab citizens support both democracy and shari'a. I argue that individual values related to the secular-Islamist cleavage are instrumental in explaining this joint support. The analysis of the Arab Barometer Survey shows that individuals holding Islamic values are more favorable of shari'a, whereas those with secularist values tend to support democracy. However, the bivariate probit estimations also confirm that Arab opinion about these governing principles is more complementary and less divergent. The results imply that constitutional models combining Islam and democracy, rather than strictly secular institutions, may be more acceptable to Arab citizens.
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In this article, we examine the patterns of civic engagement in non-democratic and democratizing polities of the Arab world. The theoretical argument incorporates two perspectives: modernization theory and utilitarianism. Specifically, we use wasta-seeking behaviour and indicators of human capital and citizen empowerment to explain the micro-level foundations of civic engagement. We build on the implications of these approaches to explain the civic gender gap and women's status in Arab societies. The results of a series of multivariate estimations using the first wave of the Arab Barometer Survey show that clientelistic behaviour along with higher levels of education and employment status explain citizens' involvement in various forms of civic activities. We argue that the former helps sustain traditional authoritarian structures and the latter may help democratization by strengthening civil society. We also detect a civic gender gap and find that citizen empowerment and modernization may narrow this gap in accordance with the democratic norms whereas utilitarian behaviour may generate a similar effect to indirectly undermine the status of women. These findings provide new insights about the complex interdependence of human development, clientelistic networks, women's status, and democratization in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
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Social capital is the use of informal networking to secure access to resources and opportunities. Often identified as an asset for offsetting deficiencies in societies, research on the phenomena is limited. This paper describes a qualitative study using focus groups with young adult Emeriti women representing three social-economic groups who were interviewed by the author in order to explore the topic of social capital, specifically a form of social capital defined by the Arabic term "wasta". The women discussed their experiences of how wasta persists regardless of social and religious laws forbidding its practice and how they might use it in their own futures. The focus groups had notable differences in their perceptions of wasta, but as women, they did not see themselves as having access to this form of social capital. The study findings indicate that for these participants wasta is perceived as a cultural paradox that intersects with gender and class as a social construction that reinforces patriarchal and class privilege.
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List of Maps and Tables Preface Acknowledgments Note on Foreign Terms and Transliteration Introduction PART ONE: Similarities: Common Heritage of the Maghrib 1. State Formation in Kin-Based Societies 2. Islam and Family Law: An Unorthodox View 3. Women Ally with the Devil: Gender, Unity, and Division 4. Men Work with Angels: Power of the Tribe PART TWO: Historical Differences 5. The Precolonial Polity: National Variations 6. Colonial Rule: French Strategies PART THREE Three Paths to Nation-State and Family Law 7. Palace, Tribe, and Preservation of Islamic Law: Morocco 8. Elite Divisions and the Law in Gridlock: Algeria 9. State Autonomy from Tribe and the Transformation of Family Law: Tunisia Conclusion. State-Building, Family Law, and Women's Rights History, Strategy, and Policy Some Theoretical Implications Glossary Notes Bibliography Index
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Although there is a substantial literature examining public confidence in the judiciary in developed nations, scholars have paid scant attention to analyzing judicial confidence in developing countries. Building on extant work regarding developed nations and introducing original hypotheses in the context of developing nations, this research explains influences on public confidence in Latin American judiciaries by developing a theory that focuses on the potential influences of institutional quality, experiences, and individual attitudes. The hypotheses are empirically tested with the rich individual-level data compiled by the Latin American Public Opinion Project 2006 survey. The results indicate that a variety of factors influence public confidence in Latin American courts; the role of context explains points of consistency and divergence with research on developed nations.
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A pillar of American foreign policy in the Middle East since September 11, 2001, has been promoting democracy, with particular emphasis on support for women's representation. Given high levels of anti-Americanism in the region, does foreign pressure for policy reform undermine this project? Evidence from a nationally representative survey experiment in Jordan shows that an American endorsement of women in politics has no average effect on popular support for women's representation. Instead, domestic patterns of support and opposition to autocrats determine citizens' receptivity to policy endorsements, with policy endorsements of foreign-supported reforms polarizing public opinion. Both foreign and domestic endorsements of women in politics depress support among Jordanians who oppose their regime significantly more than among Jordanians who support it.
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Vote buying and vote selling are prominent features of electoral politics in Lebanon. This article investigates how vote trafficking works in Lebanese elections and examines how electoral rules and practices contribute to wide and lively vote markets. Using original survey data from the 2009 parliamentary elections, it studies vote selling with a list experiment, a question technique designed to elicit truthful answers to sensitive questions. The data show that over half of the Lebanese sold their votes in 2009. Moreover, once we come to grips with the sensitivity of the topic, the data show that members of all sectarian communities and political alliances sold their votes at similar rates.
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Corruption may be defined in a legal or normative sense, and in some societies the two definitions may be coincident. In the legal sense, corruption is self-regarding behavior on the part of public functionaries that directly violates legal restrictions on such behavior. Normatively, a public functionary may be considered corrupt whedier or not a law is being violated in the process. A legally corrupt person may arouse no normative reprobation; a person judged corrupt by normative standards may be legally clean. What is common to both definitions is the notion of the abuse of public power and influence for private ends. It can safely be assumed that any society or political system manifests some level of one or the other, or both of these forms of corruption.
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Rather than concentrating on potential explanations for the Tunisian uprising or focusing on the future challenges the country has, this article looks back at the time of Ben Ali and the mythology that the regime created around political, economic and social development in Tunisia. The article argues that the authoritarian resilience paradigm and the democratization one tended to obscure the complexity of Tunisian society and how it reacted and adapted to the policies the regime implemented over the course of more than two decades. Thus, the article problematizes the rigidity of paradigms and contends that a more nuanced and holistic approach is necessary to understand both Tunisian politics and Arab politics more generally.
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This article explains the determinants of individual support for democracy in 10 Muslim-majority countries. Starting with economic and cultural interpretations of modernization theory, the author advances an argument exploring cross-linkages between macro- and micro-level implications of this theory as they relate to attitudes toward democracy. The author also provides a test of two alternative explanations: social capital and Islamic values. A series of cross-national and ordinary least squares regressions utilizing the fourth wave of the World Values Survey demonstrates that, 50 years later, modernization theory is still a powerful tool for explaining democratic attitudes. Particularly, perceptions of gender equality show strong associations with democratic orientations. Although some support is found for the positive effect of political trust, religiosity and Islamic values poorly predict support for democracy in the Muslim world.
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This article questions why Islamists approved family law reform in Morocco and not in Jordan. The answer entails three inter-related factors: the different relationships Islamists had with their respective monarchs; the strength of leftist parties and their ties to civil society; and how the respective reforms were presented by the two monarchs. This article contributes to a body of literature that argues, while not discounting ideology, that an understanding of Islamist parties requires an examination of the larger political context and Islamist responses to it.
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Throughout the period of French indirect rule in Morocco (1912–56), colonial scholars and administrators generated a mass of literature to explain the perceived differences between Arab and so-called Berber (Amazeeri) societies. In the minds of many colonial enthusiasts, objective ethnic difference translated into a series of clear social, cultural, and political traits that had divided the indigenous populations for centuries. Historians of the period have highlighted this ethnographic focus as one of the preeminent justifications for French reforms in Morocco. The reform and institutionalisation of customary Berber law, which provoked the most widespread urban protest in nearly two decades, has long been understood as an example of legislative overreaching: the vibrant popular reactions to the so-called Berber dahir of 1930 signalled to many contemporary actors and subsequent historians the veritable birth of the Moroccan nationalist movement, as urban populations protested the what they saw as the diminution of the sultan's jurisdiction and the attenuation of shari‘a in many rural areas. Implicit in this narrative is the idea that by 1930 the otherwise cautious and informed process of ethnically specific reform somehow went awry. This article seeks to demonstrate that the French legal reform program was, from its inception, founded upon vague, contested understandings of Berber social and political organisation that colonial administrators mobilised for very specific political ends. The so-called reform of Berber customary law was rather an invention of a system that French administrators used to remove the Berber population from the influence of the Arab makhzan, to marginalise religious law in favour of secular European values, and ultimately to fracture the network of social, cultural, and political relationships between the sultan and his people. Understanding the manipulative bases of legal reform sheds light on the relationship between the human sciences and colonial policy – specifically the complicated strength and malleability of scholarly mythmaking – and underscores the paradoxes of the French ‘civilising mission’.