Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

The Post-Transition Constitutional Process
Prudence Buxton
The high-profile ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011
ensured that the world’s gaze fell firmly on Tunisia as the first of the Arab Spring states
to overthrow its previous regime. As the world’s attention has been drawn to subsequent
uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria amongst others, many international
observers have comparatively neglected the process of transition through which Tunisia
has been passing. The procedural and substantive issues involved in Tunisia’s transition
have not been neglected by Tunisia’s citizens, however, and debates and struggles have
been taking place since January 2011 within the context of the release of widespread
public participation that was heralded by the fall of the previous regime. In the center of
both the procedural and substantive debates is the new constitution being drafted by the
National Constituent Assembly, a 217-seat body elected through Tunisia’s first free
election on 23 October 2011.
The task facing the National Constituent Assembly is a challenging one: to drawup
a new constitution that will provide a governmental and societal structure that is
perceived to be representative of the values and the interests of Tunisian citizens and,
therefore, a legitimate expression of a new social contract. In order to attain this outcome,
procedural factors as well as the content of the document will be crucial, and constitute
the subject of this chapter. First, I will provide a topic-specific background to Tunisia’s
current constitutional process so that the current struggles can be placed within their
national and historical context. I will then go on to highlight some of the key debates in
the post-conflict/transition, constitutional literature to provide an analytical structure to
the subsequent discussion. From this foundation, an observation and analysis of the
Tunisian case will be put forward highlighting where the trade-offs identified in the
literature will have an impact in Tunisia’s transitional period. I will conclude with
recommendations for how best to secure a stable and legitimate transition in Tunisia and,
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