122 S. MOORE
by state institutions. 4 To understand the relationship between Morocco’s renewable energy policy and the geopolitical environment in the
Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, I draw on all three perspectives: conflict over scarce resources, energy markets and economics, and
the social construction of energy policy.
It is impossible to understand Morocco’s energy policy without examining the effects that resource scarcity has on its state power and economy.
However, what realists often overlook is that energy markets, capital
investment, and energy prices matter greatly for nation-state power,
particularly in low- and middle-income nations in which poverty threatens
state security and economic development is necessary for states to gain
international power. In much of the MENA region, energy subsidies and
services have long been guaranteed to populations in exchange for authoritarian rule, and states are supported by fossil fuel rents rather than taxes. 5
The Moroccan monarchy lacks fossil fuel wealth, but failing to ensure the
affordability of energy and the standard of living it provides, as is done in
oil-rich states in the region, could threaten state stability.
What is less often examined is that domestic social policy matters for
international energy policy. Crafting energy infrastructure is not simply a
matter of building hardware. In high-income countries, the construction
of energy infrastructure was guided by energy policies shaped by social
needs and perceptions. 6 For instance, in the United States, the Jeffersonian ideology of the yeoman farmer as the moral lifeblood of the country
led to the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration. The administration subsidized the construction of centralized electricity systems that
the private sector would not have otherwise built, and even bankrupted
wind companies that provided decentralized power to rural areas. 7 The
social shaping of electrical power systems has faded from memory as
electrical power systems in the West have developed momentum, 8 and
has been replaced with discourses of technological determinism: that the
best technology determined the shape of the power system, rather than
political, social, and cultural forces.
In Morocco, solving energy challenges relates explicitly to addressing
the state’s construction of societal challenges. A Moroccan energy vision
document states: ‘All debates on energy policy become, by definition,
a debate on the stakes of the future and returns of the choices of the
model of society to which we aspire as a national collectivity.’ 9 This
chapter argues that the Moroccan government’s energy policy is shaped
by a conglomeration of competing forces that must be understood in
by state institutions. 4 To understand the relationship between Morocco’s renewable energy policy and the geopolitical environment in the
Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, I draw on all three perspectives: conflict over scarce resources, energy markets and economics, and
the social construction of energy policy.
It is impossible to understand Morocco’s energy policy without examining the effects that resource scarcity has on its state power and economy.
However, what realists often overlook is that energy markets, capital
investment, and energy prices matter greatly for nation-state power,
particularly in low- and middle-income nations in which poverty threatens
state security and economic development is necessary for states to gain
international power. In much of the MENA region, energy subsidies and
services have long been guaranteed to populations in exchange for authoritarian rule, and states are supported by fossil fuel rents rather than taxes. 5
The Moroccan monarchy lacks fossil fuel wealth, but failing to ensure the
affordability of energy and the standard of living it provides, as is done in
oil-rich states in the region, could threaten state stability.
What is less often examined is that domestic social policy matters for
international energy policy. Crafting energy infrastructure is not simply a
matter of building hardware. In high-income countries, the construction
of energy infrastructure was guided by energy policies shaped by social
needs and perceptions. 6 For instance, in the United States, the Jeffersonian ideology of the yeoman farmer as the moral lifeblood of the country
led to the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration. The administration subsidized the construction of centralized electricity systems that
the private sector would not have otherwise built, and even bankrupted
wind companies that provided decentralized power to rural areas. 7 The
social shaping of electrical power systems has faded from memory as
electrical power systems in the West have developed momentum, 8 and
has been replaced with discourses of technological determinism: that the
best technology determined the shape of the power system, rather than
political, social, and cultural forces.
In Morocco, solving energy challenges relates explicitly to addressing
the state’s construction of societal challenges. A Moroccan energy vision
document states: ‘All debates on energy policy become, by definition,
a debate on the stakes of the future and returns of the choices of the
model of society to which we aspire as a national collectivity.’ 9 This
chapter argues that the Moroccan government’s energy policy is shaped
by a conglomeration of competing forces that must be understood in