To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Erin York explores competing conceptions of politics under autocracy, examining the existence of both faux-democratic institutions as well as historical networks of patronage in the Moroccan context. She provides systematic evidence that institutional systems of horizontal accountability help to level the playing field, creating opportunities for political outsiders to compete for support through by the book activity. But there are limits to this mechanism of political action: the regime’s control of the executive and, in particular, the presence of technocrat appointees weaken its effectiveness.
