Game of Thrones in North Africa

"Democracy isn’t something that’s just declared. It has to be built. We have the separation of powers. And we will never tolerate radical Islam because our traditions here have been moderate for ten centuries."

We can't reasonably expect "democracy" to take hold in any of the other ME Countries that don't have the same traditions of moderation, so they will continue to struggle politically and fight their civil wars while Morocco evolves. Morocco IS very fortunate to have a modern,progressive King.

I' sure a large portion of the population of the U.S. would be quite pleased if they,too, had a King to oversee the government. King Barack I, has a nice ring to it.;-)

Interesting that the best schools in the Country are run by Jews and the elite send their kids there to get the best education,even Muslim kids.

All well and good, but what happens if King Mohammed VII or VIII etc. is a hard line Islamist or just a plain old rat fink?

The American colonists had no quarrel with the monarchy until the Hanoverian period notably with George III who ascended to the throne in 1760. Had he treated the Colonists as Englishmen, allowing them the rights described in the English Bill of Rights of 1689 it is possible that the American Revolution would not have happened.

I think he's trapped himself within his definitions and this means that his analysis all over the place.

For example, Totten says that 'monarchies are by definition not democratic'. Nonsense. There are quite a few monarchies around the world, including Canada, and their governance is most certainly democratic. Totten is confining the meaning of 'monarchy' to 'absolute monarch', something that the world more or less phased out several centuries ago.

And Totten doesn't deal with dictators, which can be quite stable, and stability, he informs us, is one result of a monarchy. But he doesn't define stability, for the MENA, for example, is so ideologically stable that it can't adjust to the modern world!

Then, he also tells us that the Moroccan king can't make laws by himself anymore; that he can't make 'executive orders'. Gosh, isn't that just what Obama does? Make his own laws via his czars and his executive orders? Hmm.

The US began in treason. It can never rationalise its origins away, and the attempts to do so vitiate political discourse in that country.

A recent article in Pravda, on gun control, which was linked by SDA, begins, "Under the Tsar we were free."

God save the Queen, the protector of our liberties.

Morocco is attempting to develop a Constitutional Monarchy. That is impressive. If the Islamists don't invade, it may actually succeed.

John Lewis, I don't think it's that simple as 'the Queen protecting our liberties'.

After all, think about that malevolent, malicious Article 13 of the Human Rights code, which Harper recently got rid of. Now that was a serious violation of our freedoms. But he had to wait for his majority to do so, and this article was set up and beloved by the Liberals. Under the Queen.

The problem with monarchies is that you can have a good one or two for a long time and then you get a bad one after everyone forgets how to deal with them and the instruments of state are all nice and secure to keep him/her in power. Or you have a good monarch who people get to like and then feel loyal to long after they have gone out of their tree.

Just returned from my first trip to Morocco (a 2-day business meeting). My impression (from the upper-middle class area in Casablanca) is that the people are genuinely free to dress and go about their lives with little government interaction. But the economy has a long way to go to bring about a prosperous middle class -- and the middle class is the key to a successful democracy.

I've travelled extensively in Chile, and have seen it rapidly improve over the last 15 years. For all the crimes of the military government in Chile, they are largely responsible for setting the country on its current direction where a prosperous middle class enjoys law, order and capitalism. Morocco today under the King looks like Chile did 15 or 20 years ago under the last of the military government. I truly hope that the next 20 years are as good to Morocco (and its up-coming middle-class) as the past 20 years have been to Chile.

Keep in mind that the next monarch of Canada is Charles. Unless he is bypased in favour of William.

America had every right to rebel as even almost half of the English Parliament of the time agreed with them. King George was in violation of Magna Charta provisions . Which established the Right to dissension of unjust laws by a Monarch.
The same would have been true with Trudeau With his NEP. The West would have been fully justified by Provincial rights legislation to separate.

" Monarchies are by definition not democratic. They are, however, more stable than anything else in the Middle East and North Africa at the moment."

I think the democracy in Israel is quite stable, unless, as ET mentioned, you define stable as static. A static government is basically an earthquake waiting to happen.

Alex >

"I truly hope that the next 20 years are as good to Morocco"

It all depends if Obamba see's Olives & Hashish as the next global "cash crop".

If so it'll be time to pull out the Nobel Peace Prize and drone them into some Liberal freedom & democracy, for their own good of course.

I'll support anything that will get a certain J. Turdeau to take up intense snowboarding......

Totten should title everything he writes as "the innocence abroad".

Sounds like the only Arab country in the world that I would visit right now.