IT'S GOOD TO HAVE A KING:

Bahrain Could Learn From Morocco's Model: The king is proposing major democratic reforms without a shot being fired. (AHMED CHARAI, 3/15/11, WSJ)

Amid uncertainty in Tunisia and Egypt, and a brutal dictator's war against his people in Libya, a phenomenon emerged last week in Morocco that might offer a new kind of hope for the region. Some locals have dubbed it the King's Revolution, and neighboring countries and Western policy makers would do well to examine its implications.

On March 9, the 47-year-old ruler, Mohammed VI, appeared on national television flanked by his brother and son. He tasked a group of esteemed Moroccans—including a former dissident who has bitterly fought the monarchy—to draft a new constitution that would cede roughly half the king's authority to an elected prime minister.

He called for a separation of powers, including an independent judiciary, a more even distribution of governance across the country's provinces, and a series of amendments that would enshrine individual liberties, human rights and gender equality. And in a nod to the region's indigenous inhabitants, the Berber, who make up 40% of the population, he called for their mother tongue of Amazigh to become an official language alongside Arabic.

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