Social Accountability in Morocco: Recurring Pressures and Sporadic Concessions

Amongst the institutional and societal changes that Morocco experienced in the last decades, accountability is becoming pivotal. The first article of the 2011 Constitution correlates responsibility with the rendering of accounts. However, important limitations to institutional accountability remain. This chapter aims to delve into local meanings and practices of social accountability, asking what accountability looks like for people in Morocco. After providing contextual information on Morocco’s overall accountability environment, the chapter looks at four dimensions of citizen engagement with social accountability: the multiple meanings that citizens ascribe to this notion, how these translate into diverse mobilisation methods, how authorities respond to citizen engagement and the overall outcome of these processes. This research showed that while the limited efficacy of institutional protocols for accountability taints citizens’ hopes for change, they still engage in a plethora of social accountability initiatives. Yet, such initiatives are far from systematically producing results. Local officials’ complicated relationship with civil society and limited ad hoc concessions further nuance the assessment of bottom-up demands for accountability. Regardless, civil society actors remain resolute in their struggles for change.