Morocco has made significant progress in human rights over the past fifteen years, but continued human rights abuses raise questions about Morocco’s ability to sustain its progress toward democratization.

Morocco exemplifies an extreme case of top-down reform, because reform comes from the king without much involvement by the opposition. In a discussion hosted by the Carnegie Endowment, Marina Ottaway presented her paper Morocco: From Top-Down Reform to Democratic Transition?, which argues that while many changes have taken place in Morocco, none can be described as democratic.