Contested transformation: mobilized publics in Tunisia between compliance and protest

Abstract

and stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (sWP), German institute for international and security affairs With the ousting of Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, new political actors and various forms of participation began to emerge in a society previously restricted by a complex security and censorship system. At the same time, existing civil society organizations and activist networks that had operated in secret or subject to severe restrictions were able to expand their activities. Reform of the association law in September 2011 under the interim government of prime minister Beji Caid Essebsi liberalized civil society and led to a vibrant landscape of initiatives, unions, associations and various types of other organizations.Researchers and donor organizations have tended to describe civil society as a uniformly supportive actor in the Tunisian transformation process (Deane, 2013). In particular, the strong Tunisian General Labour Union (Union générale tunisienne du travail, UGTT) has been extolled for its mediating and stabilizing role (Chayes, 2014). Such narratives are generated by research agendas focusing ABSTRACT A variety of civil society actors played a major role in the 2011 uprisings in Tunisia that ousted President Ben Ali, but its influence waned in the course of the following transformation process. This article looks at different forms of expressions of contentious politics and non-institutionalized movements, framed here as 'mobilized publics' , that have intervened in the political process in Tunisia. It proposes that there are significant differences in their respective views on the transformation and the role that they can play in it, and hence the approaches to activism that they chose. Three case studies of mobilized publicsin the field of gender justice, socio-economic justice and transitional justice-are examined according to their different degrees of institutionalization, resources and strategies. The analysis shows how struggles for socio-economic justice and transitional justice have been marginalized and discredited as disruptive by a political elite that wagered on increasing polarization.

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

“…Anti-establishment attitudes also show high levels of support for civil society organizations that previously did not directly partake in parliamentary elections. Civil society organizations were critical in mobilizing protestors during the revolution, and hundreds of new civil society organizations have emerged since 2011 in support of a variety of different socioeconomic and political causes from feminism to unemployment to transitional justice (Antonakis-Nashif, 2016). One of the most important civil society organizations is the UGTT.…”

“…Some protestors have been motivated by anti-establishment attitudes. For example, the women's rights protests in the summer of 2012, led by the Tunisian Association of Women and the UGTT, mobilized against the Ennahda-led troika government's attempt to establish a difference between genders in the constitution (Antonakis-Nashif, 2016). Other protestors were motivated by anti-system attitudes.…”

Participation, association-building and dissent in North Africa: the various dimensions of youth activism, from the fall of Ben Ali to the revolt against Bouteflika (2011–2019)

“…Young people from these backgrounds and the associational action that they promote are generally given a certain degree of legitimacy by the public authorities and international development organisations, but this highlights our lack of knowledge about the extent to which such action reaches and attracts other, less-educated young people from the working classes. To locate this more numerous group of young people and their forms of socio-political participation, it is necessary to look to other spaces of socialisation, such as the street or the neighbourhood, and other types of collective action (Bayat 2010;Khatib 2013;Lamloum and Ali Ben Zina 2015;Antonakis-Nashif 2016;Onodera et al 2018). For example, Bayat (2010) insists that 'non collective actors' engage in practices of everyday resistance, which are understood as an expression of opposition to the dominant modalities of social governance.…”

Modernisation theory meets Tunisia’s youth during and since the revolution of 2011

“…However, Tunisia's democracy must be considered fragile, a work in process. Ennahdha and Nidaa Tounes may each be willing to participate in a government led by the other, but together they deny political power to substantial sections of Tunisia's population who were among the protestors in 2011, mainly the working and lower classes, the entire population in the country's south, and radical Islamists (see Antonakis-Nashif, 2016;Berman and Nugent, 2015;Boubekeur, 2016;Merone, 2015;Murphy, 2015). However, these groups' problem is their lack of voter appeal.…”