Zawaya

Maghreb societies need to move towards separation of powers

By: Abdelaziz Karraky

All Maghreb countries, except for Libya, are former French colonies whose Constitutions are based on the French semi-presidential model introduced by De Gaulle. This model resulted from a historical experience that confirmed France’s failure in adopting the English parliamentary system, leading to the establishment of an executive authority with two key figures: the President and the Prime Minister.

However, given his charismatic personality, General Charles De Gaulle dominated the executive power, and represented the model that matched the perceptions of the Maghreb’s political elites. People embraced this model at the beginning of the post-independence era, when there was a mass mobilization to build the State, led by individuals who gained their political credibility primarily from their struggle against colonialism, and who believed in the concentration of power in the same hands. However, leading battles and managing political affairs are two different matters. The concentration of power is no longer applicable nowadays to guide political development, which can’t be properly achieved without separating powers. Montesquieu said: “Virtue itself has need of limits. To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power….”

To be in line with modern times, and to keep up with the current changes taking place in the world and the Mediterranean region, Maghreb countries have no other choice than democracy. This requires the separation of powers, and that people exercise power through a representative Parliament that monopolizes the legal field as the embodiment of the public will.

The executive power that ensures the implementation of laws is derived from the Parliament and the majority within it, but the balance of powers requires that each authority remains independent from the others. Therefore, while the government has the power to dissolve the Parliament, the latter can withdraw trust from the former and even overthrow it. This system also leaves room for the opposition, which has all the means necessary to access power. This allows the alternation of political elites based on a sort of political competition, which ultimately resorts to citizens as the final judge, through free and fair elections.

Moreover, the judiciary is independent from all authorities, and enforces the application of the law without any discrimination, thus guaranteeing individual and group rights, as no one can be above the law.

This structure of power is not a dispensable luxury, but rather a need that helps eliminate violence and put an end to the monopoly of power, as the latter is exercised according to the law. Lord Acton said: “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.