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Socialization to Politics in Morocco: Sex and Regional Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Micheal W. Suleiman
Micheal W. Suleiman
Affiliation:
Department of Political ScienceKansas State University
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Extract

Research in the West has clearly shown that attitudes developed in school greatly contribute to the views of students on societal and national issues, especially toward their country and leaders. In the newly independent and developing countries, the schools play an even more important role in value formation, since the material used in school is often prepared with a definite and clear objective of inculcating certain specific values in the young—above and beyond the task of imparting factual, scientific information. There, school teachers also are likely to convey attitudes and values different from those received at home, especially concerning development and national integration.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , August 1985 , pp. 313 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Easton, David and Hess, Robert D., “The Child's Political World,” Midwest Journal of Political Science, 6 (1962), 229–46;CrossRefGoogle ScholarDawson, Richard E., Prewitt, Kenneth, and Dawson, Karen S., Political Socialization, 2nd ed. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1977). pp. 137–70;Google Scholar and Sigel, Roberta S., ed., Learning About Politics (New York: Random House. 1970). pp. 311–74;Google ScholarEaston, David and Dennis, Jack. “The Child's Image of Government,” in Dennis, Jack, ed., Socialization to Politics: A Reader (New York: John Wiley. 1973), pp. 59–81;Google ScholarGreenstein, Fred I., Children and Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965);Google Scholar and Andrain, Charles F., Children and Civic Awareness: A Study in Political Education (Columbus.! Oh.: Merrill, 1971).Google Scholar

2 Prewitt, Kenneth and Okello-Oculi, Joseph, “Political Socialization and Political Education in the New Nations,” in Sigel, . Learning. pp. 607–21.Google Scholar

3 The procedure is known as judgment sampling. For this and other sampling techniques, see Eckhardt, Kenneth W. and Ermann, M. David, Social Research Methods (New York: Random House, 1977). pp. 157–215.Google Scholar

4 On the subject of male-female relations and attitudes in Morocco, see Mernissi, Fatima, Beyond the Veil (New York: Schenkman, 1975);Google ScholarDwyer, Daisy Hilse, Images and Self-Images: Male and Female in Morocco (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978);Google Scholar and ‘Women, Sufism, and Decision-Making in Moroccan Islam”, in Beck, Lois and Keddie, Nikki, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp. 585–98;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMaher, Vanessa, Women and Property in Morocco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974);Google Scholar and “Women and Social Change in Morocco,” in Beck and Keddie, Women, pp. 100–23;Google ScholarDavis, Susan Schaeffer, “Working Women in a Moroccan Village.”Google Scholaribid., pp. 416–33; Lawrence Rosen, “The Negotiation of Reality: Male-Female Relations in Sefrou, Morocco,” ibid., pp. 561–84; Evelyne Accad, “The Theme of Sexual Oppression in the North African Novel,” ibid., pp. 617–28; and, by the same author, Veil of Shame: The Role of Women in the Contemporary Fiction of North Africa and the Arab World (Sherbrooke, Quebec: Editions Naaman, 1978);Google ScholarVinogradov, Amal Rassam, “French Colonialism as Reflected in the Male-Female Interaction in Morocco,” Transaction of the New York Academy of Sciences, 36 (1974), 192–99;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRassam, Amal, “Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Study of Women in the Arab World,” Cultures, 8 (3) (1982), 121–37;Google Scholar and “Women and Domestic Power in Morocco,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12 (2) (09 1980), 171–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also “Women's Songs from the Berber Mountains of Morocco,” translated by Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, in Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock and Bezirgan, Basima Qattan, eds., Middle Eastern Muslim, Women Speak (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977), pp. 127–34;Google Scholar and Davis, Susan S., “Zahrah Muhammad: A Rural Woman of Morocco,”Google Scholaribid., pp. 201–17.

5 This and several other questions in this study were originally used in the Easton and Dennis surveys in the United States. For a report on the major findings from those surveys, see Easton, David and Dennis, Jack, Children in the Political System: Origins of Political Legitimacy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969).Google Scholar

6 For a good political study of Morocco, see Waterbury, John, The Commander of the Faithful (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970).Google Scholar

7 The response rates were 61% for boys and 48% for girls.Google Scholar

8 The same situation apparently exists in the area of political participation among university students. See Nedelcovych, Mima Sava. Determinants of Political Participation: A Survey Analysis of Moroccan University Students, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University, 1980, pp. 159–62.Google Scholar

9 It is worth noting that the girls who did answer were in every case more likely to state a clear position of liking and/or disliking the individual than the boys, who tended to be neutral in their description of these world leaders.Google Scholar

10 Recognition of and support for the country flag appears at an early age. See Lawson, Edwin D., Development of Patriotism in Children—A Second Look,” in Sigel, Learning, pp. 321–27;Google Scholar and Horowitz, E. L., “Some Aspects of the Development of Patriotism in Children,” Sociometry, 3 (1941), 329–41. This diffused support begins to decline in upper grades.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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12 Similar results were obtained in nine out of ten Arab countries where adults were asked to name “the best people” within the Arab nation. Respondents from each country (except Yemen Arab Republic) more often mentioned themselves than other Arabs. In the case of Moroccan respondents, the top two choices were 22.9% Moroccans, and 21.5% Palestinians. lbrahim, Saad Eddin, lttijahat al-ra⊃iyy, al-'amm al-'Arabi Nahwa Mas⊃alat al-wahda [Arab Public Opinion and the Question of (Arab) Unity] (Beirut, Lebanon: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 1980), pp. 271–72.Google Scholar

13 See the conversation reported by Lawrence Rosen in which the girl objects to marry a certain individual because “he lives far away and is always moving and I won't have anyone from my own family nearby.” Rosen, “Negotiation,” p. 572.Google Scholar

14 In fact, a large number of those who chose Morocco explained their choice by stating simply: “It is my country.”Google Scholar

15 Ibrahim. Ittijahat, pp. 226–27.Google Scholar

16 On the Polisario and the Sahara issue, see Price, David L., The Western Sahara (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1979);Google Scholar and Damis, John, Conflict in Northwest Africa: The Western Sahara Dispute (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1983).Google Scholar

17 Many respondents also rejected belonging to some Western countries because they were Christian–i.e., non-Muslim. The results reinforce the strong Muslim orientation of these Moroccan children. Moroccan adults, like Arabs generally, differentiate between Judaism and Zionism. See Ibrahim, Ittijahat, p. 324,Google Scholar and Suleiman, Michael W., “Attitudes of the Arab Elite Toward Palestine and Israel,” American Political Science Review, 67(2) (06 1973), 482–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 On the subject of Islam in Morocco, see, among the more recent studies, Eickelman, Dale F., Moroccan Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976);Google ScholarGellner, Ernest, Saints of the Atlas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969),Google Scholar and Muslim Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981);Google Scholar and Geertz, Clifford, Islam Observed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968).Google Scholar

19 Arab nationalist sentiment and the desire for Arab unity were not as strong among Moroccan adults as they were among respondents from seven other Arab countries. Nevertheless, over 50% expressed support for some form of unity (Ibrahim, Ittijahat, p. 337).Google Scholar

20 On this difficulty and how it might be overcome, see Benyakhlef, Mustafa, Min ajl ta⊃rib fi al-mustawa (For Quality Arabization) (Rabat, Morocco: Published by Author, n.d.—1980?).Google Scholar See also Geertz, Clifford, Geertz, Hildred, and Rosen, Lawrence, Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1979), especially the tables in the appendix.Google Scholar

21 Zartman, I. William, Morocco: Problems of New Power (New York: Atherton Press, 1964), pp. 155–56.Google Scholar

22 According to Davis, the only exception to these women's disinterest in politics is the affection and reverence they express for the former monarch, Mohammad V. See Davis, Susan S., Patience and Power: Women's Lives in a Moroccan Village (Cambridge: Schenkman Publishing Co., 1983), pp. 93. 95.Google Scholar

23 This question was not asked in Marrakesh.Google Scholar

24 Compared with children in the United States, these Moroccan students appear to have a lower level of perceived political efficacy and a higher level of rebelliousness. See David Easton and Jack Dennis, “The Child's Acquisition of Regime Norms: Political Efficacy,” in Dennis, Socialization, pp. 82–104:Google Scholar and Easton and Dennis, “Child Image,” ibid., pp. 59–81.

25 Apparently, the “poor opinion of the teaching profession” dates back to the 1950s. See Zartman, Morocco, p. 167.Google Scholar

26 Brown, Kenneth L., People of Salé (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), p. 99. (Emphasis in original.)Google Scholar

27 For a description of rigid instructional methods in Moroccan elementary schools, see Miller, Gerald D., “Classroom 19: A Study of Behavior in a Classroom of a Moroccan Primary School,” in Brown, L. Carl and ltzkowitz, Norman, eds., Psychological Dimensions of Near Eastern Studies (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1977), pp. 142–53.Google Scholar

28 Mernissi, Veil, p. xvii.Google Scholar See also Mernissi, Fatima, “Progress of the Contemporary Moroccan Family,” Majallat Killiyyat al-Aadab wa-al-Ulum al-Insaniyya, 2, 187–203, and 3–4, 157–80. (No year indicated; in Arabic.)Google Scholar

29 It should be noted that the data are from Grades 3–5. It may be that girls later become markedly less interested, knowledgeable, and involved. This apparently happens in the United States. See Easton and Dennis, “Child's Acquisition,” Socialization, pp. 101–2.Google Scholar

30 For example, Mernissi, Fatima, “Progress,” tends to emphasize the differences. See also her As-Suluk al-jinsi fi mujtama⊃ islami-ra⊃smali taba⊃i (Sexual Behavior in an Islamic-Capitalist Subservient Society), translated by Azrawil, Fatima-Zobra (Beirut: Dar al-Hadatheh, 1982).Google Scholar