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

T U N I S I A A F T E R 1 4 J A N U A R Y A N D I T S S O C I A L A N D P O L I T I C A L E C O N O M YT H E I S S U E S A T S T A K E I N A R E C O N F I G U R A T I O N O F E U R O P E A N P O L I C Yhand, the importance of the international situation and climatic conditions, and on the other,the dynamism of entrepreneurs (‘Sfaxians’, according to another myth which could do withfurther investigation) as well as the social structuring of the industrial and, above all, commercialnetworks. 20More often than not, however, this re-appropriation operates more subtly, by creating, aposteriori, public policies to which every improvement is subsequently attributed. François Siinohas provided us with a superb formula for this process: ‘belated institutionalisation, or: foreseeingwhat has already happened’! 21 On this topic, the most striking example is undeniably that ofcouncil housing policies. Everyone can remember the fabulous figure of 80% representing thepercentage of Tunisian households that owned their own homes. In separate but convergentstudies, Mustapha Ben Letaïeff and Sana Ben Achour have shown the importance of dwellingsbuilt on land acquired informally. 22 Only 50% of title deeds to land, it appears, are registeredin urban territories and, of the celebrated 80% of families whom the Tunisian authorities boastof having turned into homeowners, many of these have done so independently of any stateaction. Unpublished ministerial reports underline the dangers of the proliferation of districtswhere people set up improvised homes, the decline of property assets and the relative size ofdilapidated and insalubrious accommodation. 23 In Greater Tunis, 30% of housing is ‘anarchic’and this figure increases to over 50% in the Ariana governorate. These are DIY buildings and selffinanceddwellings, put up without the permission of official authorities, so their owners cannotbenefit from the financial support mechanisms for house building (building sites, interest relief,installation of water, gas and electricity, and land registration). It is now established that housingaid programs – though the same applies to most social programs – are essentially aimed at thesolvent population. 2420 M. Bouchrara, ‘L’économie du réel’, La Presse, 13 March 1985; ‘Diminuer les entraves avant de multiplierles subventions’, La Presse, 20 and 27 March 1985 and ‘7 millions d’entrepreneurs’, loc.cit.; P.N. Denieul,Les entrepreneurs du développement. L’ethno-industrialisation en Tunisie. La dynamique de Sfax (Paris:L’Harmattan, 1992).21 He develops this argument in connection with the organisation of research in the hard sciences: F. Siino,Science et pouvoir dans la Tunisie contemporaine (Paris: Karthala-IREMAM, 2004), p. 211.22 S. Ben Achour, ‘Permis de bâtir et régulation urbaine’ (pp. 173-192) in Mélanges en l’honneur deHabib Ayadi (Tunis: Centre de Publication Universitaire, 2000), especially pp. 179-183. She states thatan ‘overwhelming majority of households own their own homes’ in districts dominated by informaldwelling-places and that these are never squatters (p. 181). M. Ben Letaïef, ‘Institutions, modes degestion et devenir: la politique tunisienne de la ville’, Revue Tunisienne de Droit, 2000 (Tunis: Centre dePublication Universitaire), pp. 159-193. See also P. Signoles, ‘Acteurs publics et acteurs privés dans ledéveloppement des villes du monde arabe’ (pp. 19-53) in P. Signoles, G. El Kadi et R. Sidi Boumedine(eds), L’Urbain dans le monde arabe. Politiques, instruments et acteurs (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1999).23 Reports of the Ministry of Equipment, Housing and Physical Planning quoted by M. Ben Letaïef,‘Institutions, modes de gestion et devenir’, loc.cit.24 D. Chakerli, ‘Lutte contre la pauvreté et solidarité nationale’, dossier La Tunisie sous Ben Ali, December2000 on the website www.ceri-sciences-po.org/kiosque/archives/déc2000.29T h e r h e t o r i c o f ‘ s t a b i l i t y ’ a n d t h e e c o n o m i c ‘ m i r a c l e ’