Citizens’ understanding of the social contract: Lessons from Tunisia

Abstract

How do citizens understand state obligation in the provision of social welfare in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)? Studies of citizen attitudes towards social welfare have focused almost exclusively on countries in the Global North, while scholarship on the social contract in the MENA region has approached the question from a top-down perspective, often viewing social welfare provision as a tool of authoritarian survival. This article examines Tunisians’ perceptions of state obligation in providing two essential socioeconomic needs—food and healthcare. We engage the possibility that two theoretically important predictors of welfare support – namely, education and labor market status – may shape support for different socioeconomic provisions, differently. Analyzing a nationally representative survey fielded in 2017, we find that Tunisians are more likely to blame the state for lack of access to adequate healthcare than lack of access to adequate food. Regression analyses show that education increases Tunisians’ propensity to blame the state for lack of healthcare but exerts no similar effect on their perceptions of state obligation towards ensuring access to adequate food. At the same time, labor market status significantly affects Tunisians’ propensity to blame the state for lack of food (with unemployed individuals and housewives expressing highest levels of blame) but exerts no effect on their perceptions of state obligation toward healthcare provision. We draw on interviews with Tunisian economic and social rights advocates to contextualize and interpret these findings within a broader discussion of the social and political environment surrounding food and healthcare provision in Tunisia. Theoretically, our paper demonstrates the importance of disaggregating citizens’ attitudes towards different forms of welfare provision, and challenges the predominant expectation in welfare opinion studies that the self-interest mechanism will drive support for state provision across diverse socioeconomic concerns.