By balancing and absorbing the cultural, political, and economic influences from surrounding regions, Morocco may remain one of the most peaceful, stable, and pluralistic countries in the Arab and African world. While Arab one-party regimes have clung to power by cracking down on the opposition, Morocco has taken a refreshingly different path. Its 1997 parliamentary elections were exceptionally free and fair, with an opposition-party coalition winning one third of the seats in the lower house. Fifteen political parties representing socialists, monarchists, nationalists, neoliberals, Berbers, and Islamists all hold seats in the Assembly of Representatives. The government is now headed by Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi, a veteran leftist leader of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces.
Civil society continues to flourish.
Few African or Arab countries have done better at cleaning up their human rights record or attracting back exiles and dissidents. The new king, Mohammed VI, has spoken frequently of the importance of reforming education and the administration, and of tackling poverty and unemployment. Many in Morocco's political elite hope he will transform the constitutional monarchy from one that rules to one that reigns. A significant proportion of Moroccan society identifies itself with conservative Islam. Abdassalam Yassine, the elderly leader of the Islamist party Al Adl wal-Ihsan who has been under house arrest for years, represents the radical side of this worldview.