From Mistrust to Understanding: Inclusive Constitution-Making Design and Agreement in Tunisia

Abstract

In 2014, Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly (NCA) almost unanimously approved the country’s first democratic constitution despite significant identity-based divisions. Drawing on the Tunisian case, the article explores the role of an inclusive constitution-making process in fostering constitutional agreement during democratization. Emerging studies that link different process modalities to democracy have so far brought only limited illumination to how inclusive processes matter, nor were these propositions systematically tested. Using process tracing, and building on original interviews gathered in Tunisia between 2014 and 2020, this article traces a causal mechanism whereby an inclusive constitution-making process allowed for a transformation of interpersonal relationships between political rivals. It demonstrates that more than two years of regular interactions allowed NCA deputies to shatter some of the prejudices that initially separated especially Islamist and non-Islamist partisans and develop cross-partisan ties, thus facilitating constitutional negotiations. However, I argue that the way these transformations contributed to constitutional settlement is more subtle than existing theories envisaged, and suggest alternative explanations. The article contributes to the debate about constitution-making processes by unpacking the understudied concept of partisan inclusion and applying it empirically to trace its effects on constitutional agreement, bringing precision and nuance to current assumptions about its benefits.

Constitutional inclusion in divided societies: Conceptual choices, practical dilemmas and the contribution of the grassroots in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

“…There is scholarly consensus within constitutional theory whereby ‘for a constitution to be truly democratic, the process of its writing must be inclusive, participatory and open’ (Choudhry and Tushnet, 2020; Hart, 2003; Segura and Bejarano, 2004: 217). Yet, the literature on inclusion in constitutional change, sometimes on ‘inclusiveness’, approaches the concept in different ways (Jermanová, 2021). Some of this literature centres on vertical inclusion, that is the inclusion of citizens (Carey, 2009; Eisenstadt et al, 2015; Hudson, 2021; Landemore, 2015; Maboudi, 2020a, 2020b) and other scholarship investigates horizontal/partisan inclusion by political parties and interest groups (Eisenstadt and Maboudi, 2019; Jermanová, 2021; Maboudi, 2020a).…”

Popular support for military intervention and anti-establishment alternatives in Tunisia: Appraising outsider eclecticism

“…Since Ben Ali's removal in 2011, Tunisians elected a constituent assembly and drafted a new constitution providing the basis for a democratic transition (Jermanová, 2020;Zemni, 2015). The following decade witnessed a turbulent, albeit largely peaceful political process leading to the writing of a new constitution, the formation of a party system, two legislative assemblies, and two rounds of presidential elections in 2014 and 2019 respectively.…”

“…While this consensus-based coalition of 2014 made the democratic transition possible (Jermanová, 2020), the formation of large parliamentary coalitions with actors that had different opinions on critical social and economic issues created gridlock in the legislature. Consequently, parliament failed to confront the country's problems with economic stagnation and corruption (Boubekeur, 2016;Brumberg & Ben Salem, 2020).…”

“…Tunisia has emerged as an intriguing case to study anti-system and anti-political establishment sentiments along with their consequences for the electoral battlefield and political instability. While elite compromise has enabled the emergence of a transitional 'pact' (Boubekeur, 2016;Jermanová, 2020), anti-establishment sentiments have remained an important element in Tunisian postauthoritarian electoral politics ever since the 2011 founding elections (Koehler & Warkotsch, 2014). In the 2019 presidential elections, the only Arab democracy witnessed a run-off between two political outsiders, Kais Said and Nabil Karoui, beating all other candidates who had support from their party establishments.…”

How can we Agree on Anything in This Environment? Tunisian Media, Transition and Elite Compromises: A View From Parliament

“…There has been a considerable amount on the success of the Tunisian transition, ranging from the attitude of the elites toward compromise (Boubekeur 2016) to the supportive role of security forces (Brooks 2013), from the influence of civil society activism (Deane 2013) to the moderation of the Islamist party (Cavatorta and Merone 2013) and from the broader historical culture of compromise centered around the concept of Tunisianité (Zemni 2016) to the support of international actors (Marzo 2020). While these explanations all have a degree of validity, particularly the ones focusing on the ability of elites to compromise, it is important to underline, as some scholars have attempted to do (Jermanova 2020;Perez 2016), the role of the individuals at the center of political negotiations within the ANC, whose work, ingenuity, and personal relationships were forged in a highly polarized ideological environment. The media contributed to polarization and it is worth investigating "how" ANC members were able to write a foundational document in such difficult circumstances.…”