Good State, Bad State: The Politics of Voicing Dissent and the Case of 'Landless Moroccans'

In 2017, the documentary film "Landless Moroccans" was released which shed light on the expulsion of the Guich Oudaya tribe from their land in the capital city of Rabat as well as their protest against this expulsion. This thesis investigates what the film can reveal about political claim-making and state-society struggles in contemporary Morocco. By focusing on how the state is addressed and claims are attempted to be legitimized, it argues that the film produces a good vs. bad dichotomy between the monarchy and the state which uncovers the authoritarian environment within which dissent is voiced in Morocco. This dichotomy reflects a state discourse aimed at diverting state critique from the monarchy to the government and other executive authorities. Applying Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this research illustrates that the film's reproduction of state discourse is at once a proof for its internalization as well as a strategy to position the protest safely vis-à-vis the regime....Show moreIn 2017, the documentary film "Landless Moroccans" was released which shed light on the expulsion of the Guich Oudaya tribe from their land in the capital city of Rabat as well as their protest against this expulsion. This thesis investigates what the film can reveal about political claim-making and state-society struggles in contemporary Morocco. By focusing on how the state is addressed and claims are attempted to be legitimized, it argues that the film produces a good vs. bad dichotomy between the monarchy and the state which uncovers the authoritarian environment within which dissent is voiced in Morocco. This dichotomy reflects a state discourse aimed at diverting state critique from the monarchy to the government and other executive authorities. Applying Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this research illustrates that the film's reproduction of state discourse is at once a proof for its internalization as well as a strategy to position the protest safely vis-à-vis the regime. The discursively produced dichotomy identified in this thesis can thus give further insights into the ways in which civil society actors may navigate protest in authoritarian settings.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Good State, Bad State: The Politics of Voicing Dissent and the Case of 'Landless Moroccans'