The Civil Society, the Commune, the Parliament: strategies for political promotion of young rural leaders in the province of El Hajeb, Morocco

Abstract

Bearing in mind that elections are an auspicious time to raise local political issues, this article analyses the strategies of young men and women leaders inthe province of El Hajeb in Morocco and how they negotiate their leadership roles at the local level. The article is based on observations and semi-structured interviews conducted with young leaders and resource holdersduring the legislative elections of October 2016. While some young people manage to accessmunicipal councils, the present authorsfind evidence to suggest that they cannot become parliamentarians because of being hampered by a lack of social networksthat would broaden their constituency, as well asa lack of material resources to run their election campaigns. For young women, access to parliament is even more difficult, particularly if they fail to obtain a seat through the women’s quota system. Conscious of their limited resources, some young people consider the electoral period as a resource in itself for asserting themselves at the local level and negotiating their political rise. In parallel, they develop electoral strategies to position themselves as local leaders without necessarily running as candidates in legislative elections by choosing to: a) go through several local and regional elective structures; b) strengthen their position within any political party; c) get involved for many years in associational work while attempting to move upwards from the territory of their village to the commune, and then to the province; and d) draw on family notability. The authors’ aim is to show that young leaders are not instrumentalised by potential elected representatives but thatthey carefully negotiate the support they provide to such representatives in order to consolidate their local leadership.