Becoming a policy entrepreneur under authoritarian regimes

The study of policy-making processes in established and emerging democratic contexts suggests a plurality of actors and stakeholders involved. These actors manage to unblock situations that maintain the status quo on a given policy issue within a particular subsystem. Among these actors, a particular type of actor stands out: policy entrepreneurs. They are characterized by their proactive commitment to putting policy reform on the decision-making agenda, relying on constant personal investment and the use of multiple resources of information, knowledge and advocacy. However, in authoritarian regimes, challenging the regime can be costly, and there are many incentives to prevent actors from taking ownership of reform. Even if successful, it is possible that the reform advocated for is captured by the dictator, with no recognition for the policy entrepreneur who initiated it. Does this mean that policy entrepreneurs cannot exist under authoritarian regimes or that they are simply not visible? Using the case of Morocco, a constitutionalized monarchy, the article analyzes the policy-shift in health care that took place in 2014 on drug price regulation that hasn't changed since 1974. By conducting qualitative interviews with actors involved in the reform and a process-tracing approach using a variety of primary sources, it highlights how the then Minister of Health, Houcine El Ouardi, acted as a policy entrepreneur to lower drug prices. This article has important implications for the literature on policy entrepreneurship, by illustrating how even government actors in an authoritarian regime, despite governmental and non-governmental opposition, can assume a role equivalent to a policy entrepreneur leading to policy change.