Neoliberal policies and evolution of crony capitalism in Morocco and Tunisia

Abstract

The implication of neoliberal policies directed to lessen state interventionism and increase the role of markets making the economies more competitive and efficient. Neoliberal policies applied in Morocco and Tunisia during the 1980s and 1990s aimed to transform the state from the economy with strong state involvement and intervention into a liberalized market economy where market forces are free to make economic decisions. However, the applied neoliberal reforms have been used to favor the elites, family groups and clans. This study examines whether the neoliberal policies under non-democratic regimes might influence the evolution of crony capitalism. Specifically, the full package of neoliberal policies examined and detected the plausible mechanism that used by elites to develop crony capitalism. To be specific, the findings show that privatization used by cronies to consolidate the existing cronyistic network and transfer cronyism from interpersonal and cultural social phenomenon structural and systematic one: crony capitalism.