The Tunisian Revolution: An Opportunity for Democratic Transition (original) (raw)
Related papers
2011
or decades Tunisia projected an image of stability to the world and distinguished itself from other Arab countries for its macroeconomic achievements and progress in the areas of economic growth, health, education and women's rights. This widely held view of apparent stability was shattered on January 14 th , when President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country amid widespread chaos and social unrest caused by high levels of unemployment and inequality. Events in Tunisia sound alarm bells not just for this country and its future but for many regimes of the Middle East, the sustainability of which is often taken for granted. The policies of the European Union towards the region are now also thrown into question.
BRIEF POLICY Tunisia: A conservative revolution
Five years have passed since Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation and Ben Ali's departure, and ambivalence prevails in the representations and perceptions of Tunisia. While the international community celebrates Tunisia as the Arab world's sole example of a successful transition towards democracy, Tunisian citizens are disillusioned with the unfinished democratisation process, sapped by terrorism, unemployment and unrelenting corruption. Putting aside the oversimplistic categories of success or failure, this paper offers a review of the social and political changes that have been achieved since 2011. It contextualises historical developments that have thrown Tunisia into turmoil since the "Arab Spring", in order to give a more accurate picture of specifically the Tunisian trajectory.
The Promise of Democracy in Tunisia Since the Arab Spring
KKI Policy Brief, 2021
Abstract: Tunisia has often been praised as the only democratic success story of the Arab world. Today, following the exceptional measures undertaken by President Kais Saied to freeze parliament and dismiss the prime minister, that description is being challenged, and democracy is called “a failed experiment.” This article explains why this is happening in Tunisia by examining the roots of the main political and economic challenges to Tunisia’s democratic path. The article also offers insights into the consequences of these changes at the national and the regional level.
Tunisia's Transition: the Delicate Blossom of Political Compromise
The Tunisian uprising in late 2010 and early 2011 heralded the era of post-Bourguibism and ushered in a ‘Second Republic.’ While several structural elements of this new political and governance system, both institutional and procedural, have crystallized over the past five years (constitution, pluralistic party landscape, free elections), other features are still being debated with verve (interpretation of the constitution, identity questions, the relationship between Islam and the State, the need for economic reforms and freedom of expression). Even though the possibility to openly and publicly address such previously unthought-of issues represents a major achievement of the ‘Dignity Revolution,’ the underlying contending worldviews of the major political stakeholders tend to exacerbate rather than subdue societal polarization. This mixed record indicates the ambivalent and still open-ended nature of the progressing socio-political transformation.
Tunisia's Troubled Path of Democratization
Digest of Middle East Studies, 1998
he wave of democratization that began in 1970's in southern T E urope, namely Spain, Greece, and Portugal, and engulfed Latin America and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 199O's, has had its share of impact on the Middle East and North Africa as well. The region's experiment with democratization in the last two decades has exposed the limitations of elite initiated democratic compacts. While bowing before the exigencies of the global market, much of the region has opted for economic liberalization, genuine political liberalization is, however, yet to manifest itself. So far, retrenchment and return of repression have followed attempts at political liberalization and democratization as the recent experiences of Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia indicate. I n other words, liberalization is only tolerated as a means of regime preservation rather than a n instrument of regime transformation. A true contestation of political power is not yet a part of the rules of the game. Instead, the process remains a controlled and manipulated liberalization intended either to detract attention from economic crisis of the state or to forge political legitimacy for the authori-Tunisia's Troubled Path of Democratization-M. Dorraj 13