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strong relationships across organizations through their participation in the initiative (SAIS Group Meeting, 28 January 2012). The recent large-scale grassroots nature of civil society development in Tunisia is unprecedented. Communities in the interior of the country—always having been politically disaffected and less prosperous than the coastal populations—are setting up local development groups, pooling community resources to implement projects. Another new trend in Tunisian civil society is the linkages between civil society organizations and political parties. This type of open association with a political party would have been seen as a direct challenge to the regime during the Ben Ali regime, but now political parties see civil society groups as an effective way to expand their reach to the community level. Ennahdha has been particularly effective in using civil society to garner support through a network of Islamic groups loyal to the party. It is unclear to what extent NGOs are funded directly using party funds, but Tunisians did point out that Ennahdha did maintain impressive patronage networks through the country. Meanwhile, back in Tunis, representatives of civil society are attempting to register a high-profile success demonstrating their influence in a Tunisian democracy. 170 civil society activists including lawyers, professors, youth representatives, and heads of human rights and development organizations gathered to form a parallel constituent assembly with a mission to monitor and provide a check on the official body. At the body’s plenary session on 23 January 2012, one of the assembly’s prominent members, the Secretary General of the Foundation of Arab Democracy Moshen Marzouk, described the body as “not a platform of opposition or of loyalty,” but with a mission “to strengthen civil society participation in the development of the new constitution and to support the work of the National Constituent Assembly.” When asked whether the official assembly had given its blessing to its civil society counterpart, one activist said that he interpreted the official body’s silence in response to the organization of the parallel body as approval. This seems a dubious claim and could simply mean that the National Assembly has chosen to ignore civil society and get on with the work of writing a constitution. 122
The focus of civil society groups in Tunis on rights and on the constitution is understandable given Tunisia’s long history of authoritarianism and repression. Without a vigilant civil society to protect against abuses, the Islamists might feel more emboldened to please their more conservative constituents by enshrining more traditional values in the constitution, including turning back the clock on women’s rights. 25 But keeping the primary focus on rights 26 —not on the economic issues with which most of the population is most concerned—is not helping the perception that civil society, at least in the capital Tunis, is dominated by left-wing elite groups: professors, intellectuals, and lawyers. It seems as if, to an extent, the “elite civil society” in Tunis has not yet adapted to a post- Ben Ali world and sees its role as remaining in steadfast opposition, vigilant towards any signs of repression or denial of basic rights. Overall, after the fall of the Ben Ali regime, the independent civil society in Tunisia has developed impressively in a very short time. The two main poles of civil society in the country—the grassroots civil society of the interior focused on local development and civic engagement, and the elite civil society of Tunis who have taken more of a rights-based watchdog role—could prove to be complementary in Tunisia’s democratic development. As we saw with our introductory comparison between ATED and UTICA, civil society is by no means uniform, but is nonetheless unified in its role of serving as a channel for citizens’ interests and as a check on state power. Over time, with the benefit of social media, civil society will benefit from the consolidation of interests that naturally comes from linkages across organizations and regions. And, finally, the development of a robust civil society that can aid in the country’s development and enrich its democracy takes time. Considering that it has been only one year since the fall of a regime that had as a central strategy the co-option and repression of civil society, we can be cautiously optimistic that an effective civil society is in the making. 25 In fact, few civil society actors or Tunisia observers really know whether Nahdha’s promises that they will work to protect gains in women’s rights are genuine, or are simply paying lipservice to liberals and will be reneged on once they become more powerful. 26 A recent poll of Tunisian citizens (by “I Watch”) revealed that Tunisians were not very concerned with the constitution-writing process but were much more interested in tangible issues such as security or jobs. 123
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Johns Hopkins University School for
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Acknowledgements We are most gratef
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List of Acronyms AKP Adalet ve Kalk
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xii
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proposed goal (as in the previous e
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democracy is a continual testing pr
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What’s in a Revolution? The timin
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limited to Tunisia, these vivid dep
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political system before any of the
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discontent of so many in Tunisia wh
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eality,” signified by Tunisian pe
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mantra sparked the Kasbah sit-ins r
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in early January of 2011, you would
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independence from the Ottoman Empir
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ack to the 1970s (SAIS Group Meetin
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Two Tunisias: How A Revolution Whic
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continued to cite statistics claimi
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inequality were most severe. Combat
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in government could drop precipitou
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for bold political leadership in Tu
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History of Secularism in Tunisia In
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1) Freedom to form and to join orga
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Source: Stepan, Alfred C. “Religi
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terms of campaigning, the political
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that in practice many people who es
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Short-term • Secular parties must
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Islamism and Laïcité in the Tunis
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girl, a high-achieving student at h
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laws are either supported directly
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and she argues that he, like many s
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during exams, preventing other stud
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Constituent Assembly should keep th
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Women’s Rights in Tunisia: A “N
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dismiss the question as a non-issue
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In immediate post-revolutionary Tun
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Others express concern about the va
Page 83 and 84: something every Tunisian boy does n
Page 85 and 86: Mr. Ghannouchi is equally surprised
Page 87 and 88: Mr. Hedri showed concern over the l
Page 89: has occurred in response to politic
Page 93 and 94: The Post-Transition Constitutional
Page 95 and 96: Theoretical Literature While there
Page 97 and 98: Tunisian Case Following Ben Ali’s
Page 99 and 100: parties. With the internal arrangem
Page 101 and 102: issues of unemployment, reduced cor
Page 103 and 104: Recommendations • NCA and politic
Page 105 and 106: Political Party Development Amy Ham
Page 107 and 108: experience and expertise, will be k
Page 109 and 110: with Laryssa Chomiak, SAIS group me
Page 111 and 112: epresented a complete departure fro
Page 113 and 114: To some extent, the focus on the qu
Page 115 and 116: • Enhance the legitimacy and enfo
Page 117 and 118: Ennahdha and the Salafis Roberta Lu
Page 119 and 120: The trial against Nabil Karoui, the
Page 121 and 122: Some Possible Explanations The hesi
Page 123 and 124: the salafist movement Al-Salafiya A
Page 125 and 126: violence, to lay the bases for a ne
Page 127 and 128: Tunisian Civil Society Before and A
Page 129 and 130: Bourguiba,” Bellin points out,
Page 131 and 132: nip in the bud any challenges to pa
Page 133: “training-of-trainers” (ToT) ev
Page 137 and 138: economic development in Tunisia. Th
Page 139 and 140: The Tunisian Youth Fallout: A Look
Page 141 and 142: that they found voting to be the mo
Page 143 and 144: head (Dégage, 2011). It should the
Page 145 and 146: graduates are unemployed (SAIS Grou
Page 147 and 148: to participate as a citizen in a de
Page 149 and 150: are rumored to consist only of 3,00
Page 151 and 152: Medium-term • At some point, the
Page 153 and 154: Part III: Security, Justice and Eco
Page 155 and 156: The Role of the Military in Post-Be
Page 157 and 158: insufficient to prevent the demonst
Page 159 and 160: disruptions during voting, the tota
Page 161 and 162: This is in sharp contrast to the mi
Page 163 and 164: Recommendations While the military
Page 165 and 166: Internal Security and Reform in Tun
Page 167 and 168: The Implements of Repression There
Page 169 and 170: undesirable organizations, stifle d
Page 171 and 172: evolution, many police, especially
Page 173 and 174: A Way Forward: Policy Reforms At pr
Page 175 and 176: Transitional Justice and National R
Page 177 and 178: Those released therefore included p
Page 179 and 180: The current situation in many ways
Page 181 and 182: circulating that the informal strik
Page 183 and 184: the commercial interests of the ban
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and clear limits to police behavior
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Addressing Unemployment Rebekah Cha
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The forecasting is based on the ass
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of its revolution. This has had a c
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Boosting the Tourism Sector The tou
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absorb all of the university gradua
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language and technology skills, whi
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Understanding Unemployment in Tunis
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ather than shifts from low to high
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Figure 2: Unemployment by age and e
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the Tunisian economy. Thus, creatin
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• Encourage entrepreneurship: Tra
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U.S. Assistance in Tunisia Cody Die
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cultural differences that may inhib
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the Constitutional Assembly in Tuni
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order to receive these funds over o
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and access to jobs in Libya for Tun
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Conclusion P. Terrence Hopmann The
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the domination of the salafis and o
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well educated, but under or unemplo
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persons, a huge contingent for such
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List of Interviewees Washington DC,
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• Salah Bourjini, former division
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• Ahmed Ibrahim, Secretary of the
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Bibliography Abouzeid, Rania. 21 Ja
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Cook, Steven A. 20 January 2011.
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Le Monde. 25 January 2011. “Tunis
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Silver, Vernon. 12 December 2011.
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World Bank. 2004. “Dynamique de L
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