Steven Heydemann is vice-president of the Center for Applied Research on Conflict at the U.S. Institute of Peace and adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University.
Morocco is a country with a "defused" political game: Elections do not play their usual role in democracies of allowing citizens to choose among competing agendas for policy and governance.
A long-ruling strongman president has been unseated by popular unrest and a negotiated transition is under way, but to many Yemenis this all appears to be a change more of…