tunisia after 14 january and its social and political economy - Refworld

I. The rhetoric of ‘stability’ andTHE economic ‘miracle’The strategies adopted by the European Union, as of other donors to Tunisia (the World Bankand the IMF, as well as bilateral forms of cooperation) have rested on a largely exaggerated,even erroneous analysis of the situation in Tunisia, in its different dimensions: political, economicand social. On reading the strategy documents published (especially the country strategypapers or CSPs, and the National Indicative Programs or NIPs), one is so struck by the gapbetween the reality and the way it is described by experts that one is tempted to see a kind ofvoluntary blindness at work.For years, the discourse of financial partners, starting with the World Bank and the IMF, but largelyrepeated by the European Union, has contributed to spreading, and gaining credence for,the image of an economic ‘miracle’ that the Tunisian authorities have fostered. Apart fromthe undeserved legitimacy this has given the Tunisian regime, this rhetoric has constituted theunderpinnings of the strategies pursued, as well as being a guarantee to donors. If we are theclear the path for a more adequate fit between the representation of the Tunisian economyand its reality, we inevitably have to deconstruct the discourse on Tunisia’s ‘economic miracle’.24A cursory overview will show that it rests on several well-known elements, and is relatively simple:on the one hand, the extent of growth, economic diversification and its ability to create jobs,the increase in exports, the way the country can attract foreign investment and finance, and,last but not least, an improvement in the living standards and well-being of the population; on