Learning to navigate evolving political spaces: Human rights associations in Morocco and Tunisia since the Arab Spring

How do human rights associations learn to navigate evolving political spaces to oppose authoritarian regimes? This contribution examines the repertoires of action of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) and the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) to understand how different opposition actors have adapted to the distinct trajectories of authoritarian regime transformation in these two countries. Drawing on a substantial corpus of news items concerning these associations, this diachronic and synchronic case study underscores the interplay between evolving political structures and the experiences of opposition actors – both shaping their learning processes. On one hand, changing political spaces induce adaptive responses of political actors, generating processes of upgrading when they capitalize on expanded opportunities and of isomorphism when they confront emerging constraints. On the other, both actors’ historical trajectories and political strategies bear substantial influence in shaping their responses to structural transformations.