Introduction

Negotiating the Post-Revolution Constitution for Tunisia – Members of the National Constituent Assembly Share Their Experiences

“…As regards constitution-making in post-authoritarian and post-conflict contexts, the importance of it cannot be emphasised enough or too many times (see e.g. the work of Saati, 2015, Saati, 2017a, Banks, 2007, Samuels, 2006, Miller, 2010, Brandt et al 2011, Bâli & Lerner 2017. The constitution stipulates the rules of the political game, and actors in states where political space for the opposition has been partly, or entirely, closed during an authoritarian regime will now see an opportunity to have their voices heard, and values considered, when the founding laws of the country are being drafted anew.…”

“…The constitution stipulates the rules of the political game, and actors in states where political space for the opposition has been partly, or entirely, closed during an authoritarian regime will now see an opportunity to have their voices heard, and values considered, when the founding laws of the country are being drafted anew. How this exercise of constitutional manoeuvring, between political opponents, particularly when opponents are also divided along religious/secular lines, is handled has great relevance, not to mention effects, for weather a state in transition travels down a democratic path or reverts back to some form of authoritarianism (Bâli & Lerner, 2017). As regards Tunisia as a specific case for in-depth probing, as mentioned above, the case is an exception among its fellow Arab-Uprising counterparts; whereas unity and political compromises that profoundly altered future political processes remained (and remains) absent in the other cases, this was manifested in Tunisia, and done so by the achievement of religious and secular political actors to relate to each other under democratic conditions.…”