J. of Modern African Studies, , (), pp. – © The Author(s), . Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/./), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:./SX Unravelling the adoption of youth quotas in African hybrid regimes: evidence from Morocco* MARTA GARCIA DE PAREDES Institute for Advanced Social Studies, Spanish National Research Council (IESA-CSIC), Plaza Campo Santo de los Mártires , , Córdoba, Spain Email:
[email protected] and THIERRY DESRUES Institute for Advanced Social Studies, Spanish National Research Council (IESA-CSIC), Plaza Campo Santo de los Mártires , , Córdoba, Spain Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT Parliamentary youth quotas have been adopted by nine countries, mainly African autocracies. They have also attracted the attention of international organisations, which consider them indicators of democratic progress. Why were these quotas adopted? This article challenges the long-standing regime survival thesis by explain- ing quota adoption as the result of the convergent strategies of actors placed inside and outside the regime. It also provides new theoretical arguments that point to the transformation of representative linkages in hybrid regimes and shows how this is justified in the light of empirical evidence grounded on qualitative methodology * We are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO), the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, EU) for funding the research project ‘Crisis and political representation in North Africa. Institutional arrangements and protests’ [grant number CSO--C--P].