بنية المجتمع المغربي قبل الرأسمالي وسؤال الخصوصية: قراءة في أطروحة الباحث إدريس بنعلي

Abstract

This article provides a critical review and translation of a specific section of Dr. Driss Ben Ali's thesis, titled "Pre-Capitalist Morocco: Economic and Social Formation," with a particular focus on the first section concerning productive forces and agricultural production relations between the 16th and 19th centuries. Employing the methodology of historical materialism, Ben Ali analyzes the structure of Moroccan society to address a fundamental question regarding the reasons behind the absence of a Moroccan bourgeoisie similar to its Western European counterpart.

The article explores Ben Ali's hypotheses, which are based on the coexistence of two production modes: a primitive communal mode in the decentralized regions ("Blad Siba") and a stratified, centralized mode in the government-controlled regions ("Blad Makhzen"). Furthermore, the paper opens a critical debate on the "theoretical lapses" within the thesis, namely the projection of ready-made Western concepts like feudalism onto the Moroccan context. It also addresses the limitations of Ben Ali's approach, such as omitting crucial components like slavery and its economic impact, alongside some statistical discrepancies regarding the timeline of epidemics and famines when compared to other historians, such as El-Bazzaz. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of monographic studies as an alternative to broad theoretical generalizations for understanding the structure of pre-colonial Moroccan society.