This book considers the following questions in order to understand the Why is it that a civic polity has emerged only in Tunisia up to the present? Why is Algeria attaining a much higher rate of economic growth than its neighbors? Why does Morocco find itself in a political, economic, and cultural stalemate? Why are all Maghribi societies free from ethnic, cultural, and regional disintegration? And as such this title examines 1. the formations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as distinct national societies; 2. the patterns of colonial domination and colonial change; the way in which 1. and 2. have influenced Maghribi political institutions and their elites' postures toward the basic challenges to their nations; 4. finally, the strategies and costs of national choices, given the various politcal actors' structural contexts and their situational facilities. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.