This paper addresses the role that social service delivery plays in authoritarian persistence. The literature on social service delivery in the Middle East and North Africa focuses primarily on the role that social services as provided by oppositional groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, play in terms of recruitment and in terms of the degree to which they undermine the legitimacy of the authoritarian state. However, relatively little has been written on authoritarian states’ responses. To what extent have authoritarian states responded to the successful delivery of social services by non-state actors? To what extent does the provision of social services entrench or stabilize authoritarianism in the region and, if so, how? Using the case study of Morocco, this paper addresses these questions by examining municipal provision of services and specifically new initiatives at public-private partnerships at the municipal level. In order to raise their revenues and ultimately elevate their level of social service delivery, many municipalities in Morocco have begun entering public private partnerships (PPPs). PPPs are becoming an integral part of municipalities’ local development strategies and are becoming increasingly important to the successful delivery of services. This trend is being strongly encouraged by international donors as part of larger efforts at municipal capacity building and poverty alleviation. Based on fieldwork conducted in municipalities throughout Morocco in winter 2011, this paper argues that the trend towards PPPs is contributing to a larger process of depoliticization -- the marginalization of questions of legitimacy – in Morocco (Maghroui, 2002). This paper argues, that new initiatives, such as PPPs, to improve service delivery at the municipal level are contributing to the marginalization of debate on the sources and distribution of power.