The issue of civil society in Morocco is now a common reference for the political, social and economic actors as much as social researchers. Nevertheless, the mobilization of the “civil society” category states some problems of definition in relation to what it should be, what it tries to be and what it really is. In this paper, we have chosen to distinguish among two big tendencies according to the aims of the different actors and whether they are focused on political purposes or more oriented on social and economic aims. In spite of this distinction, the legitimate role of civil society converges toward its efficiency in the provision of basic public goods for the society and the critical of the authoritarian model of governability. However, the King and the government call for the development of the associative sector. We question the existence of a clear separation among the state or public scope and the civil society, as well as the existence of a mechanical relation between the development of civil society and the democratization of the political systems. We defend that the so-called civil society in authoritarian contexts could effectively contribute to the democratization of the political system in the long run or under specific circumstances. Although the creation of various consultative institutions by the Monarch, Mohamed VI, foster the activist participation, we cannot confuse neither non representative participation with democratization nor cooptation with election.
