The Promise of Democracy in Tunisia Since the Arab Spring (original) (raw)
Related papers
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
The Tunisian Revolution: An Opportunity for Democratic Transition
IAI Working Papers, No. 11|02 (January 2011), ISBN 978-88-98042-01-2, 2011
Owing to its macroeconomic achievements, for decades Tunisia projected an image of stability to the world and distinguished itself from other Arab countries for its 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, when President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country after high levels of unemployment and inequalities resulted in widespread chaos and social unrest. Events in Tunisia raise sharp questions regarding the country’s current situation and its future prospects and, more generally, the often taken-forgranted sustainability of many regimes of the Middle East and the policies of the European Union towards the region.
Tunisia's Success in Consolidating Its Democracy One Decade Post-the Arab Spring
Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, 2022
The political turmoil in Tunisia at the end of 2010 opened the door to the democratization of Arab countries. This event, widely known as The Arab Spring, presented a dream for the Arab community to live a better life under a democratic system. However, after a decade of progress, only Tunisia has succeeded in consolidating its democracy among the Arab countries that have been affected by the political turmoil. This paper tries to read the success factors for Tunisia in consolidating its democracy by using the theory of democracy from Robert Dahl, Jack Snyder, and Georg Sorensen. This study concludes that democracy in Tunisia is already included in the category of matured democracy according to Snyder's theory or has entered the category in which a democratic culture has begun to develop (Sorensen) and fulfills the elements of a democratic state according to Dahl. This success is inseparable from internal and external factors. The internal factor is the foundation of a civil society built before The Arab Spring and the openness of viewpoints of political actors after the political upheaval. Meanwhile, the external factor is the absence of America as the dominant actor in Tunisia because Tunisia is considered a ferry country. Tunisia also proves that Islam and democracy can go hand in hand, and this is a refutation of the pessimistic views of the scholars on Islam and democracy that can go hand in hand.
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.
2015
From the Introduction. Arab revolutions have sparked real hopes for democracy, but the situation varies from one state to another and change has taken various directions, with unpredictable outcomes in the future. In light of current events, most of these countries seem to have failed in their democratic transition and also face the dissolution of their state apparatus in bloody civil wars. This leaves the door open to interpretations associating democracy with chaos. In this view, preserving post-colonial states – authoritarian in most cases – is better than having no state at all. This partially justified the coup that took place in Egypt, where the ‘Deep State’ has recovered its capabilities in a dictatorial manner. The Arab world thus faced an impasse: the state is either stable but authoritarian or democratic yet threatened with dissolution. The dilemma results in an impossible choice between stable dictatorship or freedom ending in chaos.
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.