Tunisia's Unwritten Story: The Complicated Lessons of a Peaceful Transition (2017) (original) (raw)

2017, in the book Arab Politics Beyond the Uprisings (eds. Thanassis Cambanis and Michael Hanna), 2017

Pundits and analysts have celebrated Tunisia’s post-revolution transition as a paradigm for peaceful change. Alone among the Arab countries that rose up in 2011, Tunisia successfully adopted a new political system while maintaining relative stability. The popular story of this transition features high-minded secularist heroes who saved the revolution from the hands of bumbling Islamists. But this narrative is deeply flawed. A close look at the 2013 National Dialogue negotiations reveals a more complicated history. In reality, the country averted disaster because Tunisia's three major power players— the trade union (UGTT), the Islamist Ennahda party, and remnants of the old regime— pursued self-interest in a uniquely Tunisian context that ultimately facilitated compromise. The result has been imperfect: old-regime reactionaries fared far better than is commonly understood, and socioeconomic gains remain elusive. Thus, rather than providing an easily exportable model, Tunisia’s National Dialogue carries more complex lessons for other transitions, both within the Arab world and beyond.