Tunisian Revolution Research Articles

Zabaied by Z: portraying democratic backsliding through political cartoons in Tunisia

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the portrayal of democratic backsliding in Tunisia through the lens of political cartoons, focusing on the work of the cartoonist Z. Z’s cartoons, particularly those featuring the satirical character Zabaied, a caricature of President Kais Saied, provide a unique perspective on the democratic backsliding that has occurred since he became president. Through rhetorical thematic discourse analysis of a corpus of 38 cartoons, this study explores how Z’s work portrays the ongoing democratic regression in Tunisia. Besides portraying Saied as an autocrat, the analysis reveals the following themes: mourning the ideals of the Tunisian revolution; the erosion of democratic institutions; attacks on freedom of expression, and the use of divisive, populist rhetoric. The cartoons employ visual symbolism and allegorical characters to depict the stages of autocracy, making abstract political concepts accessible and engaging. Ultimately, political cartoons provide a potent form of political commentary and a valuable tool for understanding democratic backsliding.

P.147: Impact of the 2011 Tunisian revolution on kidney transplantation accessibility from waiting list: a single center study.

P.147: Impact of the 2011 Tunisian revolution on kidney transplantation accessibility from waiting list: a single center study.

Informal economy in Tunisia

Informality has been a phenomenon that has existed in Tunisia for a long time; it expanded with the Tunisian revolution. The relationship between informal economy and GDP varies in only one direction, that is to say only informality has a negative effect on growth...The expansion of the informal sector comes back to the problem of economic freedom, Tunisia is among the least economically free countries also the political institutional framework such as the problem of government efficiency, the high level of corruption and political instability are among the explanatory variables of informality.

«I was in exile before leaving the country». Tunisia and the Feminist Continuities of Activism

What happened to the women who participated in the 2010-2011 Tunisian revolutions and subsequently left the country? While scholarly work has extensively delved into the engagement of the young generations who participated in these transformative times, there has been a limited attention to the experiences of women who subsequently underwent journeys of exile. This article seeks to empirically fill this gap by looking at the political trajectories of six women activists, spanning from their participations in the 2010-2011 Tunisian uprisings to their experiences in exile. Drawing on ethnographic research and life history interviews conducted between 2021 and 2023, this article shows the transformations in these activists’ political trajectories before they left the country. Furthermore, it outlines how, even in exile, queer and feminist activism has provided these women a space of engagement through a “multiple identifications” of their political attitudes and interests. Adopting a social movement approach focused on the continuities of engagement, this article contributes to two fields of the literature that have been traditionally studied in isolation: the literature on gendered borders and the literature on gendered transformations throughout revolutionary times. Finally, the article emphasises the importance of studying the transformations of meanings of engagement while analysing political continuities.

Adapting Monetary Policy to New Challenges After the Tunisian Revolution: Implications for Economic Growth

Adapting Monetary Policy to New Challenges After the Tunisian Revolution: Implications for Economic Growth

Bringing the state back in: Ruling parties and regime collapse during the Arab Uprisings

Scholars have mostly investigated the fall of dictatorships during the Arab Uprisings through the lens of contentious politics, uncovering new information about the protest dynamics and how they spread both within countries and throughout the wider region. However, the longer structural vulnerabilities within regimes have received little attention; yet such factors internal to states and their regimes proved paramount to the social revolutions investigated by Theda Skocpol. Focusing on the case of Tunisia, the author shows how the economic downturn and a succession crisis contributed to the decay of the Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali regime starting in the 2000s. Importantly, they heightened internecine conflicts within the regime and, in particular, within the longtime ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally. It is through this backdrop that the events of the 2010–2011 Tunisian revolution must be understood: far from supporting the regime in times of crisis, members of Ben Ali’s ruling party engaged in contentious activities against him, thus crucially weakening the regime from within.

The compromise of Islamism and democracy in the light of the Tunisian revolution and views of Rachid al-Gannouchi

The compromise of Islamism and democracy in the light of the Tunisian revolution and views of Rachid al-Gannouchi

The Tunisian Islamic and conventional banks: a performance comparative study

PurposeThis paper aims to determine whether Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs) in Tunisia are distinguishable from one another based on financial characteristics during the 2005–2014 period covering the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and the 2011 Tunisian revolution.Design/methodology/approachFor the comparison between IBs and CBs, 11 hypotheses are formulated to distinguish between the two types of banks. The authors use a univariate analysis based on the multi-dimension figures investigation and a multivariate one based on the robust OLS technique for panel linear regression with mixed effects.FindingsBank-specific factors, dummy and dummy interacting variables indicate that there are differences between Islamic and conventional bank behavior. Both methods show that IBs are more liquid, more profitable and riskier than CBs. Post-2011 Tunisian revolution, small IBs (small CBs) are more (less) solvent, large IBs are more stable and both types of banks are more liquid, which explain why Tunisian governments have relay on bank system to cover budget deficits post-2011 revolution.Originality/valueIn investigating the feature of IBs and CBs from the Tunisian context, the authors take into account the effect of two abnormal events (2008 GFC and 2011 Tunisian revolution) on IBs through interaction variables.

The Process of Revolutionary Protest: Development and Democracy in the Tunisian Revolution

Revolutionary protest rarely begins as democratic or revolutionary. Instead, it grows in a process of positive feedback, incorporating new constituencies and generating new demands. If protest is not revolutionary at its onset, theory should reflect this and be able to explain the endogenous emergence of democratic demands. In this article, I combine multiple data sources on the 2010–2011 Tunisian Revolution, including survey data, an original event catalogue, and field interviews. I show that the correlates of protest occurrence and participation change significantly during the uprising. Using the Tunisian case as a theory-building exercise, I argue that the formation of protest coalitions is essential, rather than incidental, to democratic revolution.

When Experience Turns Critical: the Anarcheological Reduction as Methodological Device in Critical Phenomenology

ABSTRACT Building on a phenomenological analysis of the Tunisian Revolution, this article puts forward the concept of critical experience as a type of experience in which the very experiential structures prove subversive of otherwise established orders (e.g. political, ethical, technological, epistemological etc.). In order to trace the anarchic, but generative impulses of such critical experience, the article develops a variation of the phenomenological reduction called an anarcheological reduction. In the anarcheological reduction, registers of critical experience are accessed in which the aforementioned anarchic impulses elicit a constitutive quasi-transcendental structuring of fields of possible experience. In order to describe the always singular, contingent trajectories along which such quasi-transcendental structuring takes place, the term generative vector is introduced. The article concludes by specifying how the quasi-transcendental registers accessed in the anarcheological reduction are different from other quasi-transcendental registers and accordingly suggesting this type of reduction as a valuable methodological supplement in critical phenomenology.

Tunisia: The Tunisian Revolution and Democratic Transition: The Role of al-Nahdah, by Mohammad Dawood Sofi (book review)

The Tunisian Revolution and Democratic Transition: The Role of al-Nahdah, by Mohammad Dawood Sofi. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2022. 188 pages. £130 cloth, £38.99 paper, £27.29 e-book.

The Stumble of the Tunisian Revolution: A Psychosocial Explanation via the Deciphering of the Professional Values of Civil servants

Starting with very high expectations of a people inspired by previous revolutions, (10) years later, the Tunisian revolution has come to an economic and social dead end. Even the whole democratic process is put on hold. This article tries to give a psychosocial explanation of the failure of the Tunisian revolution. By means of a survey of (200) civil servants, our study revealed important results regarding the impact of the revolution on work values. These findings are deemed crucial in deciphering the failure of the revolution and in identifying future choices and directions. The examination of the values of work after the revolution based on the super model conveys three contrasts: A total reversal of the scale of values, an increased interest in the value of economic advantage and the free fall of the value of creativity and intellectual stimulation

Resurrecting Maghreb Pluriel ?: Jews and Postauthoritarian Tunisia

Abstract: The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the beginning of a protracted democratization process whose long-term success is far from secured. In this article, I discuss societal/political/cultural transformations toward democracy in Tunisia since 2011 through the prism of its tiny Jewish minority. The perceived homogeneity of Tunisian society has come under increasing scrutiny since the revolution, and this includes a heightened visibility of the country's Jewish community and a degree of public debate on related topics. I focus on three cases: the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage, the demise of an NGO designed to fight racism and antisemitism in Tunisia, and the commemoration of the German occupation of Tunisia during World War II. Addressing contemporary Tunisian history "from the margins" enables a more nuanced understanding of political struggles that accompany processes of de-/re-territorializing Tunisian collective identities.

Resurrecting Maghreb Pluriel ?: Jews and Postauthoritarian Tunisia

Abstract: The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the beginning of a protracted democratization process whose long-term success is far from secured. In this article, I discuss societal/political/cultural transformations toward democracy in Tunisia since 2011 through the prism of its tiny Jewish minority. The perceived homogeneity of Tunisian society has come under increasing scrutiny since the revolution, and this includes a heightened visibility of the country's Jewish community and a degree of public debate on related topics. I focus on three cases: the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage, the demise of an NGO designed to fight racism and antisemitism in Tunisia, and the commemoration of the German occupation of Tunisia during World War II. Addressing contemporary Tunisian history "from the margins" enables a more nuanced understanding of political struggles that accompany processes of de-/re-territorializing Tunisian collective identities.

Street art as a transforming agent of public space in Arab World. Case study of two artistic groups in Tunisia

The public space in the Arab World has historically been controlled and seized by political authorities. This appropriation has created a deep rift between citizens and public places. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the Arab revolutions, new youth art forms have emerged liberating the arts from traditional formalism and these have been transferred to open spaces making them accessible to the people. This research seeks to explore the youth street art that emerged during the Tunisian revolution, not only as an innovative artistic trend, but also as a social movement that claims a new kind of citizenship. It aims to analyze the philosophical and aesthetic purposes of street art and its role in the liberation of public space. The methodology is based on qualitative interviews and participant observation with members of two street art groups Ahl Al Kahf and Fanni Raghman Anni that emerged during the Tunisian revolution of 2011. The results reveal that the youth revolutionary artistic phenomenon represents a new creative project and constitutes a. intellectual and artistic rupture with the prevailing aesthetic practices.

Kais Saied's reconfiguration of Tunisia’s political system: Hegemonic ambitions to no avail? – A critical approach

The present article scrutinizes Tunisia's contemporary political system under the regime of President Kais Saied, who has been endeavoring to ‘reconfigurate the state’ since July 25, 2021. Drawing upon the theoretical perspectives of two disparate thinkers, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and the German constitutionalist Carl Schmitt, the authors seek to investigate the genesis of Saied's implemented measures. The article examines how Saied's restructuring of Tunisia's political system can be explained by drawing upon the conceptual proposals of «hegemonic sovereignty» by Kalyvas (2020) and Gramsci’s «dictatorship without hegemony» (Gramsci, 1971), the latter representing a sustained hegemonic crisis. The authors contextualize their study by examining Tunisia's longstanding «hegemonic crisis» (Schwarzmantel, 2015) and its exacerbation since the ‘Tunisian revolution’. They argue that a preliminary culmination and expression of this 'hegemonic crisis' can be perceived as the Schmittian momentum of a «sovereign dictatorship» (Schmitt, 1921-23/1928), and the latter should be especially considered in conjunction with a historical long-term perspective on hegemonic crisis to assess Saied's assumption of power. They thereby explore the processes of hegemonic formation or failure in Tunisia following the 2010/2011 revolution, while highlighting the associated social and economic challenges of instituting a new political order. As empirical basis for this article, the authors utilize a range of sources, including recent academic publications, governmental decrees, diverse media reports, and speeches of and interviews with Saied subsequent to his assumption of power, to support their document analysis.

Survie entrepreneuriale en temps continu de crise : une approche par les risques proportionnels (cas de la Tunisie)

Our paper helps to identify the determinants of entrepreneurial survival in continuous times of crisis. We study, from the proportional risk model of Cox (1972), the case of 424 companies newly created before the Tunisian revolution of 2011. Our results show that the main factors of entrepreneurial survival relate to the company itself and its environment. This work encourages the development of support systems for entrepreneurship, dynamics of entrepreneurial territorialization, incubation, incentive for network innovation and acceleration of the dynamics of actor-projects, and finally, financial and banking inclusion in favor of the survival potential of young entrepreneurs.

The Poetics of Protest, from Africa to Minneapolis

Abstract Offering an itinerary of the thinking that led to Sentient Flesh: Thinking in Disorder, Poiēsis in Black, R. A. Judy explains the concept of “poetic socialities” mentioned in it. This explanation begins with an account of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers’ reception of Aristotle’s Poetics, focusing on ibn Sīnā’s conception of the role poetic expression’s cognitive as well as affective force plays in the instantiation of what he calls الأمة الشعرية (al-umma al-sh’irīya), “the poetic or aesthetic community.” Elaborating how and why the phrase poetic socialities is the paraphrastic translation of ibn Sīnā’s, the essay tracks the study of poetic socialites from its initial formulation regarding the 2010 Tunisian Revolution to it becoming the reference point of orientation for an interrogation of the modern concepts of sovereignty, revolution, and civic republicanism. With respect to these concepts, the study of poetic socialities enacts a critique of imperial neoliberal tendency of socialization; whereby the only tenable norm of general subjectivity is a function of speculative market value as the absolute measure not just of human progress but existence as well. Along these lines, poetic socialities is an attempt at understanding something of what is at play in te current era of popular unrest.

Tunisia: The Need for a New Development Model

The Tunisian revolution took everyone by surprise. What were the immediate causes of this historic event? What are the economic and financial challenges facing the country? How can they be addressed? The Tunisian revolution has proven the failure of the development model that has been in force since the seventies. The country is, today, facing major economic and social challenges, mainly recession, unemployment, regional disparity, a growing budget and current account deficit, a high inflation rate in addition to a heavy external public debt. The low level of national savings makes external financing the greatest challenge in the short and medium term. What development strategy should be followed? The objective of this article is to search for an appropriate development model that is capable of achieving the country’s economic and social objectives; the determination of adequate and coherent policies for its operation; and finally to provide the decision makers with practical recommendations to be implemented.

GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: OPPORTUNITIES COME WITH CHALLENGES IN TUNISIA

Using data from the OECD-Trade in Value Added (TIVA) database, this paper analyzes Tunisia’s national and sectoral participation and positioning in global value chains (GVC) during 2005–2015. This paper also aims to illustrate countries with which Tunisia is highly integrated into GVC, by exploring the countries of origin of foreign value added in Tunisian exports, and the countries exporting Tunisian domestic value added share of its gross exports. Tunisia is among the most integrated countries, during the whole period of study. It has a high level of participation in GVC in many industrial activities, particularly in the textile, clothing and leather sector, food processing, and electronic and electrical equipment. The backward linkage in its GVC integration can be explained by the choice of specialization in its production, which roughly explains its position in the middle-stream–downstream. However, its participation in value chains remains regional rather than global. Around 60% of its GVC participation is with European countries. Overall, our results suggest that Tunisia has a potential that has been well exploited for the period 2005–2010 (period before the Tunisian revolution). However, this success remains limited since political and socio-economic crises have limited the potential of Tunisia’s current participation in the GVC.