What is the Makhzen?
A word every Moroccan knows and no law defines. Where it comes from, what it means today and why it matters for understanding who decides in Morocco.
Everyone in Morocco uses it, and nobody finds it written in a law. Makhzen is the word Moroccans use for the state, for power, for «those who decide». To understand the real country, the one postcards do not show, this is where to start.
Where does the word come from?
Makhzen (Arabic مخزن) comes from the verb khazana, «to store», and means storehouse. It is the same Arabic word that gave English «magazine», which first meant a store for goods and ammunition.
In Morocco it originally named the place where provisions were kept and revenues collected. Over time it came to mean the sultan’s treasury, and then the whole apparatus that collected and managed that revenue: officials, tax collectors, the army, notables loyal to the ruler.
What were bled makhzen and bled siba?
Historians of pre-colonial Morocco distinguish two spaces. Bled makhzen, the «land of the Makhzen», was the part of the country where the sultan collected taxes and appointed his representatives. Bled siba, the «land of dissidence», was made up of regions of autonomous tribes that neither paid nor obeyed.
More recent scholarship warns that this was not a sharp line between order and anarchy. In many areas the sultan’s authority was negotiated, intermittent, built through alliances. The point still matters: the Makhzen has never been force alone, but also the ability to bargain, co-opt and reward those who come close.
What does it mean today?
In everyday speech «the Makhzen» is simply the state: the police, the neighbourhood caid, the office that issues a document. In political debate and in scholarship it means something more precise: the real power that revolves around the Palace and does not coincide with elected institutions.
Two books shaped this reading. In 1970 the American political scientist John Waterbury, in The Commander of the Faithful, described Moroccan politics as a «segmented» system: the monarchy stays at the centre by arbitrating between competing elites, parties and groups, none strong enough to challenge it. In 1997 the Moroccan anthropologist Abdellah Hammoudi, in Master and Disciple, traced the cultural roots of this authoritarianism to the relationship between master and disciple, made of devotion, testing and reward.
Taken together, these readings describe the Makhzen as a network more than an institution. At its centre, the king and his royal cabinet. Around them, the advisers, the security apparatus, the territorial administration under the Interior Ministry (walis, governors, caids), and the great families and local notables tied to the Palace by posts, licences and business.
What does the Constitution say?
The word Makhzen does not appear in the 2011 Constitution. But the text gives the king the powers that form its core.
- Religious. The king is Amir al-Mu’minin, Commander of the Faithful. He chairs the Higher Council of Ulema, the only body authorised to issue official fatwas (article 41).
- Political. He is head of state and «supreme arbiter» between institutions (article 42). He chairs the Council of Ministers (article 48).
- Appointments. The Council of Ministers he chairs decides on the appointment of walis and governors, ambassadors, the governor of the central bank, the heads of internal security and of strategic public companies (article 49).
- Military. He is supreme commander of the Royal Armed Forces and appoints to military posts (article 53).
Some of the king’s acts, the dahirs, do not need the head of government’s countersignature: among them religious acts, the dissolution of parliament and the appointment of judges (article 42).
What we know
- Where the word comes from and how it was used historically.
- The powers the 2011 Constitution gives the king, article by article.
What remains debated
- Whether the Makhzen is a coherent system or a common name for many different practices.
- Where the state ends and the network of personal loyalties begins.
Why does it matter for understanding Morocco?
Moroccan elections choose a parliament and, indirectly, a head of government. But strategic choices, key appointments, the army and religion remain with the king. The word Makhzen names this gap between elected power and real power. The next parts of this series measure it: first in the text of the Constitution, then in practice.
Sources
- Kingdom of Morocco, text adopted by referendum on 1 July 2011 (French version), Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco (2011), arts. 41, 42, 48, 49, 53, 1 July 2011
- Omran, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, The Makhzen in 19th Century Morocco: Beholder and Beheld
- John Waterbury, Columbia University Press, New York, The Commander of the Faithful: The Moroccan Political Elite. A Study in Segmented Politics, 1 January 1970 — published 1970
- Abdellah Hammoudi, University of Chicago Press, Master and Disciple: The Cultural Foundations of Moroccan Authoritarianism, 1 January 1997 — published 1997
- Merriam-Webster, makhzen (dictionary entry)