Bin Ali's Tunisia: Democracy by Non-Democratic Means

Governance Transfer by Regional Organizations

“…Especially in the early 1990s, the international community and scholars had high hopes for processes of democratization also in the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of the 'third wave' (Huntington 1991;Brynen et al 1995). However, attempts at democratic transitions in, for example, Tunisia and Algeria failed, leading to more or less open authoritarian backlashes (Sadiki 2002;Volpi 2006). By the early 2000s, scholars started to highlight the 'persistence' or 'robustness' of authoritarianism (see, for example, Albrecht and Schlumberger 2004;Bellin 2004).…”

Tunisia: Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, 2014

“…Zein El Abidine Ben-Ali came to power through a bloodless coup on 7 November 1987, bringing an end to Bourguiba’s rule. According to Larbi Sadiki, while the change was “welcomed widely by Tunisian amongst all walks of life”, a pertinent question that lingered was “the extent to which a military and security man can reverse the personalization, de-institutionalization and the privatization of the State he inherited” (Sadiki, 2002, p. 60). Indeed, the next 23 years of his rule proved this question to be significant.…”

“…Human rights record of the regime was poor to say the least, and it could hardly deliver on its promises made at the time of taking over from Bourguiba for democratization and economic prosperity (Sadiki, 2002; Talbi, 2000). It soon transformed to another authoritarian republican regimes in the Arab world, such as, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Hafez al-Assad’s Syria, Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt, and Ali Abduallah Saleh’s Yemen (Lee, 2008).…”

“…Ben-Ali took over with promises for democratization, and to this effect, initiated some measures including release of political prisoners, registration of political parties, and even allowing moderate Islamists to participate in elections as independent candidates. In 1988, he tried “a quasi-constitutional formula for ‘manufacturing consensus’ and building confidence between the regime and selected non-State actors and forces” through the National Pact (Sadiki, 2002, p. 62). Tunisia headed for poll in 1989 which in retrospective can be understood as a referendum for buying support for the new regime.…”

“…Perkins (2004, 2014) articulates the secular nationalist character of modern Tunisia following Kemalist example 3 , under charismatic leadership of Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000), who ruled out any role for Islam in the affairs of the state, to the extent that those leaning toward Islamism were prosecuted. The situation did not change under Ben-Ali, who though sought cooperation of Islamists and incorporated religious symbolism to enhance his political legitimacy, could never make peace with Islamism (Sadiki, 2002).…”