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

I.1.E.The concealment of divergent informationA fifth technique consists in selecting information in such a way as to conceal any whichdoes not send out the ‘right’ message. The Tunisian authorities are thus forever emphasisingthe primacy of social over economic considerations, underlining the policies favourable toemployment and the efficiency of such policies, by enumerating programs and incentives. Tothis end, arguments are skilfully deployed: the slow and cautious way in which privatisationsare carried out, laws that favour job creation (such as the law on bankruptcies and variousmeasures on the right to work which make it difficult for anyone to be sacked), measures ofsolidarity and the translation of social preoccupations into budgetary provisions. But at thesame time, a whole arsenal of economic policies that run counter to the much-vaunted socialobjectives is minimised or even concealed. This has made it possible to show that, in spite of theaid programs for underprivileged and peripheral zones, the peasantry was still in the 1980s and1990s the poor relation of public policies, 25 while in the 1990s, the priority given to liberal reformsas against social policies has been made clear. 26 The same could be demonstrated in otherareas. So nothing is said, of course, on the decline of currency entering the country when thefigures on the number of overnight stays may suggest, when they are presented by themselves,that tourism is flourishing or unemployment decreasing when the overall figure for growth ismeant in itself to encapsulate the ‘miracle’.I.1.F.A skilful presentation of the figuresA sixth technique consists of presenting figures through a whole system of arrangements.I.1.F.a. Negotiated and massaged figuresThe figures are, first of all, negotiated between donors and the Tunisian authorities (butthis is obviously not restricted to Tunisia alone). For example, figures for inflation, thebudgetary deficit, and the big macro-economic aggregates in general are the object ofre-assessments depending on international relations of force, the economic situation, andpolitical and ideological circumstances, thereby lessening the weight of conditionalitiesand giving more room for manoeuvre to the government of countries receiving aid toconfront their internal constraints. 273025 H. Sethom, Pouvoir urbain et paysannerie (Tunis: Cérès Editions, 1994).20 D. Chamekh, Etat et pauvreté en Tunisie : assistance et/ou insertion, DEA thesis in political science,Université de Tunis III, Tunis, academic year 1998-1999 ; E. Murphy, Economic and Political Change inTunisia.2627 The notorious Articles IV of the IMF (which imposes on all its member states the obligation tocommunicate to the IMF, once a year, the situation of their economy and their public finances), andthereports of the UNDP or the World Bank are ‘negotiated’. For Africa, see O. Vallée, Le Prix de l’argentCFA: heurs et malheurs de la zone franc (Paris: Karthala, 1989) and Pouvoirs et politique en Afrique(Brussels: Desclée de Brouwer, 1999) and B. Hibou, ‘La politique économique de la France en zonefranc’, Politique africaine, n°58, June 1995, pp. 25-40 and L’Afrique est-elle protectionniste? On Tunisia,see B. Hibou, ‘Les marges de manœuvre d’un “bon élève” économique’, La Tunisie de Ben Ali’, LesEtudes du CERI, no. 60, 1999.