4 - Politics Made into Law: Determinism and Contingency in Moroccan Constitutionalism

Summary

Three periods of constitutionalism can be identified: long-nineteenth-century reformist constitutionalism; independence-consolidating constitutionalism; and post-1990s liberalizing constitutionalism. All three periods correspond to dynamics that unfolded all over the world, but they also manifest specific characteristics that cannot be explained without paying close attention to events in, and the peculiarities of, Moroccan political, social, and economic life. Moroccan constitutionalism can thus be properly described in terms of a combination of global determinism and local contingencies. To make such a description, we mainly concentrate on the ways in which the drafters identify the different powers, their separation, and their balance. Only in this framework of constitutional checks and balances can we eventually address the place of Islam in these different texts. Indeed, it is our contention that the issue of Islam in constitutions cannot be dissociated from the general concept and organization of the state, from close attention to the state’s constitutive powers and their position in relation to each other or from the degree of religious legitimacy of the head of state.