Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the explores the role that illegal trade networks have played in state-building in Tunisia and Morocco, their development implications, and the challenges that the two states have faced in transforming the political settlements in their borderlands.

Paper long abstract:

The core of the literature on business-state relationships and development has focussed on the political centres and key formal industries in late developing countries, exploring how governments manage the relationships with their capitalist partners in order to secure stability, electoral gains, and developmental strategies. While many theoretical works refer to the importance of informal institutions, and empirical papers hint at the importance of illegal industries, there is a severe lack of work applying mainstream theories of business-state relationships to informal economies.

Based on intensive fieldwork in Southern Tunisia and Northern Morocco between 2014 and 2017, this paper explores the role that large informal trade networks have played in post-independence state-building in both countries, examines their development implications, and discusses the challenges that the Moroccan and Tunisian government have faced as they set out to reform the political settlements that they had established in their borderlands.

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