Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:49:23.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tutorial Decentralisation in Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

John R. Nellis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In less-developed countries generally, and Africa in particular, centralised forms of political and economic organisation were until recently the norm. But over the past 15 years, this form of government has come under attack, and excessive centralisation is now viewed as a primary contributor to prevailing high levels of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Various forms of decentralisation – the shifting of responsibilities and resources from central to sub-national units and actors – have been proposed as the necessary corrective mechanisms. Algeria, Kenya, the Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Zambia have been among the African countries which have implemented programmes aimed at strengthening the personnel, finances, and freedom of manoeuvre of non-central agencies and governments.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , September 1983 , pp. 483 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 483 note 1 The authors of the World Bank's Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, D.C. 1981)Google ScholarPubMed, argue that ‘domestic policy inadequacies’ are largely to blame for the poor economic performance of African states, and that central planning mechanisms and regulatory economic administrations are inefficient and unproductive. Suggested improvements include reducing the size and scope of government, eliminating or lightening gazetted regulations, and relying more on the market, the private sector, and consumer preferences (as expressed by a willingness to pay) for public services. See, especially, ch. 4, ‘Policy and Administrative Framework’, pp. 24–44.

page 484 note 1 Cited in ‘La Décentralisation au Maroc’, in Cities unies (Paris), 104, autome 1981, p. 18, no author given, but clearly a semi-official statement by the Moroccan Government.Google Scholar

page 485 note 1 The line of reasoning presented in the first part of this section draws on Nellis, John, ‘Decentralization in North Africa: problems of policy implementation’, in Rondinelli, Dennis A. and Cheema, G. Shabbir (eds.), Decentralization and Development: policy implementation in developing countries (Beverly Hills, 1983), ch. 5, pp. 127–82.Google Scholar

page 485 note 2 Valensi, Lucette, On the Eve of Colonialism: North Africa before the French conquest (New York, 1970), p. 80.Google Scholar

page 485 note 3 de Maroc, Rovaume, Projet de plan de dévelopment économique et social (Rabat, 1981), Vols. I, p. 69, and II, p. 291.Google Scholar

page 487 note 1 Merat, Christian et al. , Morocco: economic and social development report (Washington, D.C., 1981), p. 1.Google Scholar

page 487 note 2 Ibid. pp. xxii–xxiv.

page 487 note 3 ‘La Décentralisation au Maroc’, loc. cit. p. 19.

page 488 note 1 Projet de plan de développement économique et social, p. 67.

page 488 note 2 ‘La Décentralisation au Maroc’, loc. cit. pp. 18 and 24.

page 490 note 2 Ashford, Douglas, Morocco-Tunisia: politics and planning (Syracuse, 1965), pp. 33–59.Google Scholar

page 491 note 1 In Morocco, as in most French-influenced systems, textes are indispensable legal documents which elaborate at length and transform policy statements into implementable law. They frequently appear a considerable time after the policy statement has been made.

page 491 note 2 Merat et al. op. cit. p. 270.

page 491 note 3 Ibid. pp. 268–9.

page 492 note 1 Baldous, André, ‘La Réforme communale au Maroc’, in Annuaire de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris), XVI, 1977, p. 283.Google Scholar

page 492 note 2 All six textes are contained in du Maroc, Royaume, Organisation communale et organisation des finances des collectivités locales et de leur groupements (Rabat, 1976).Google Scholar

page 492 note 3 Ibid. Dahir No. 1–76–583, p. 6.

page 492 note 4 Ibid. p. 7.

page 492 note 5 Ibid.

page 493 note 1 Ibid. p. 11.

page 493 note 2 Ibid.

page 494 note 1 Baldous, loc. cit. p. 300.

page 494 note 2 World Bank, World Development Report, 1982 (New York, 1982), p. 110.Google Scholar

page 495 note 1 All these figures are from Merat et al. op. cit. p. 276. Estimates by officials of the Ministry of the Interior during a March 1982 interview, placed the number of communal staff at a specific 10,123. The Projet de plan de développement économique et social, p. 279, states that local authority personnel numbered 41,000 in 1978, up 6,500 from the previous year.

page 496 note 1 These figures, and all other information on which this section on personnel and training is based, were obtained during interviews in the D.F.C. in Rabat during March 1982.

page 498 note 1 Merat et al. op. cit. p. 284.

page 498 note 2 Baldous, loc. cit. p. 308.

page 503 note 1 See the discussion in Merat et al. op. cit. pp. 111–14.

page 503 note 2 Project de plan de développement économique et social, p. 178.

page 503 note 3 de Maroc, Royaume, Minstère de l'intérieur, Direction des collectivités locales, Note d' orientation. Commission nationale des équipements des collectivités locales (Rabat, 1980), p. 1.Google Scholar

page 503 note 4 Ibid. p. 7.

page 504 note 1 Ibid.

page 504 note 2 Projet de plan de développement économique et social, p. 69.

page 505 note 1 Ibid. p. 292.

page 505 note 2 Ibid. p. 294.

page 505 note 3 Ibid. p. 73.