Following the triumph of the Green March and the consolidation of the “sacred union,” Hassan II came to the conclusion that allegiance to the state could coexist with moderate expressions of opposition. Public opinion took the lead in showing him that the iron fist was no longer the most efficient instrument of rule, and that allowing criticism and dissent might even be healthy for the regime. The rise of an Islamist movement and other signs of social ferment helped to speed the progressive emergence of a civil society occupying the open space between the individual and the state, as human rights and civic associations, feminist and professional organizations, Berberist groups, and other special interests proliferated in the public sphere. The question was, how to allow this effervescence to go forward without causing an explosion.

In a related development, the parties of the left, excluded from power for more than a generation, gained new life and rejoined the political process, with both the USFP (a radical splinter group of the UNFP formally declared in 1975) and the PPS (the Party of Progress and Socialism, the former Communist Party reborn under yet another new name) reentering the political arena. They were joined by older parties of the center and the right, complicating even further the intricate mosaic of Moroccan party politics. The 1984 elections, with its multiparty participation, confirmed the necessity for government by coalition, an arrangement that allowed the king to continue in his role as grand master of the political game, variously balancing, co-opting, distancing, and integrating the pieces on the chessboard, depending on the circumstances.