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  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Repression and Judicial Struggles in Kais Saied’s Tunisia

    Jul 3, 2025The Unit for Political Studies

    Almost four years into President Kais Saied’s imposition of one-man-rule in Tunisia, his effort pivots around a process of “executive aggrandizement” that is d…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Kais Saied’s Policies and Practices May Lead to an Explosion in Tunisia

    Sep 6, 2024Patricia Karam

    Tunisia has experienced a disquieting authoritarian regression over the last few years following promising beginnings as a young democracy after the January 20…

  • Intern Corner
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Disinformation as a Tool of Regime Survival in Tunisia

    Jul 21, 2023C. Ian DeHaven

    Disinformation—false information created with the intent to mislead others—swamped the 2019 Tunisian presidential election, creating a confused and volatile po…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Rebuilding Tunisia’s Democracy Will Require a Long-Term Strategy

    Jun 22, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    For now, neither the urban middle class nor the Tunisian General Labor Union seem ready for a full-on collision with the president.

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s Broken Democracy: A Preliminary Assessment

    May 12, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    With Tunisia’s slide into autocracy accelerating every day, this hardly seems the best moment to undertake a frank assessment of its democratic experiment. To …

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Kais Saied’s Fantasies Are Drowning Tunisia

    Apr 27, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    The April 18 arrest of Rached Ghannouchi represents a dramatic escalation of Tunisian President Kais Saied’s assault on the political opposition. The leader of…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    The Success of Tunisian President Kais Saied’s Neofascist Populism

    Mar 2, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    If there was any doubt that Tunisian President Kais Saied is building a new autocracy on the rubble of Tunisia’s imperfect and short-lived democracy, that doub…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Only Tunisians Can Save Tunisia

    Jan 3, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    What if an aspiring autocrat held an election and barely anyone showed up? This question looms large following Tunisia’s December 17 parliamentary election. Wi…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Kais Saied Sets the Stage for Tunisia’s December 17 Elections

    Nov 11, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    Autocrats love elections, so long as they know they will win them, of course. But because they have zero tolerance for uncertainty at the polls, autocratic reg…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s Three Post-Referendum Political Scenarios

    Aug 8, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    Daniel Brumberg offers three potential political scenarios for Tunisia following the country's July 25 referendum on a new constitution that President Kais Sai…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s New Constitution Will Hasten the Country’s Transition to Autocracy

    Jul 14, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    The gathering storm provoked by Tunisian President Kais Saied’s attempt to forge a new political system could reach a critical moment on July 25. On that day T…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Maghreb-France Relations as Macron Begins Second Term

    May 26, 2022Zeidon Alkinani

    For France to remain on good terms with North Africa, it has to be ready to offer concrete assistance and avoid what in many respects have been Macron’s symbol…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Kais Saied Continues His Assault on the Tunisian State

    Apr 8, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    It is difficult to say whether Tunisian President Kais Saied’s March 30 announcement that he is dissolving the country’s parliament represents a turning point …

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    The Islamists of Northwest Africa: Accommodation and Co-optation

    Jan 26, 2022Amal Ghazal

    Analyses of Islamists in Northwest Arica—from Mauritania to Libya—follow a common pattern of distinguishing militants among them from non-militants. In particu…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Can Tunisia’s Leaders Forge a New Democratic Bargain?

    Dec 29, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    Nothing captures Tunisia’s crisis of democracy better than this act: the sentencing, in absentia, of former President Moncef Marzouki to four years in prison. …

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Is Tunisia Transitioning to a Liberalized Autocracy?

    Nov 18, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    If in the coming months Tunisia undergoes a transition, given current conditions, it will probably not be along a path back to democracy. Indeed, while Preside…

  • Policy Analysis
    Tunisia

    Saied’s New Decree Deepens Tunisia’s Crisis

    Oct 7, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    Two telling events unfolded in Tunisia on October 3rd. The first was a demonstration by thousands of flag-waving citizens proclaiming their support for Preside…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Risky Business: Kais Saied’s Regional Alliances

    Aug 20, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    Three weeks after President Kais Saied used Article 80 of the constitution to impose what can be called a ‘state of exceptionalism,’ Tunisians are waiting for …

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Kais Saied Can Either Save or Destroy Tunisia’s Democracy

    Jul 27, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    The political earthquake that rocked Tunisia July 25th—65 years after the country’s independence from France—seems all too familiar. Declaring that he was dete…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Is Tunisia’s President Endangering Democracy?

    May 7, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    Recently, Tunisia has witnessed a political dynamic that is all too rare in the Arab world: Islamists have joined forces with some secularly oriented Members o…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s Revolution Has Neglected the Country’s Youth

    May 3, 2021Houda Chograni

    Since the desperate act of self-immolation of 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, a marginalized city in the center of Tunisia, on December 17, 2010, …

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s Multiple Crises Threaten Its Brittle Democracy

    Feb 16, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    On January 26, Tunisia witnessed a scene that echoed the dramatic events of January 6 in Washington, DC. Outside the Tunisian parliament in Tunis, hundreds of …

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    As 2021 Begins, Rival Populisms Menace Tunisia’s Democracy

    Jan 8, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    Ten years after Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution” sparked grassroots uprisings in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria, the pressures of an economic crisis, rampant c…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaUS Foreign Policy

    What Can Tunisia Expect from a Biden Administration?

    Dec 1, 2020Sarah Yerkes

    Like most of its North African neighbors, Tunisia saw little attention from the Trump Administration, compared to other parts of the Middle East such as Egypt,…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Political Crisis, Regional Power Struggles, and Creeping Presidentialism in Tunisia

    Jul 29, 2020Daniel Brumberg

    Analyzing Tunisia’s political problems, Daniel Brumberg writes that nearly a decade into the country’s democratic experiment, many of its leaders appear incapa…

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Post-Election Blues in Tunisia: Implications at Home and Abroad

    Feb 10, 2020Daniel Brumberg

    The fate of Tunisia’s democracy may depend on the leadership of President Saied who, until 2019, neither played a political role nor had links to the existing …

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    The Tunisian Elections: Surprise Results and Challenges Ahead

    Oct 21, 2019Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS)

    Tunisia after its elections will be ruled by a governmental coalition the nature of which will depend on the relationship between the new president and the new…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantDemocracy and Governance

    By Electing Kais Saied, Tunisians Recast Their National Politics

    Oct 17, 2019Daniel Brumberg

    The Tunisian electorate has handed the independent candidate Kais Saied a huge victory. With 73 percent of the vote against Nabil Karoui’s 27 percent, he now h…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Presidential Elections in Tunisia: Reading the First Round Results

    Sep 25, 2019Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS)

    The results of the first round of the 2019 presidential elections in Tunisia represent an early crisis for a regime marked by the fragmentation of the party ma…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s Presidential Election: Populism Rules the Day

    Sep 20, 2019Radwan Ziadeh Imad K. Harb

    Tunisia’s presidential election shows the democratic transition moving apace, although Tunisians are shunning political parties and elites who failed to improv…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia Struggles to Project Foreign Policy Independence

    Aug 22, 2019Daniel Brumberg

    Tunisia’s leaders would do well to balance their hopes for democracy and human rights with the pragmatic exigencies of an independent foreign policy that prote…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy after Essebsi

    Aug 2, 2019Daniel Brumberg

    Daniel Brumberg argues that Tunisia’s Essebsi leaves behind a political crisis that is partly rooted in a convoluted constitutional language that does not clea…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Tunisia’s Fragmented and Polarized Political Landscape

    Mar 28, 2019Daniel Brumberg

    In the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in November 2019, if Tunisia’s politicians continue to battle under the umbrella of a largely feigned …

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Major Stakes in Tunisia’s Municipal Elections

    Apr 24, 2018Charles W. Dunne

    Tunisia, the only true success story from the Arab Spring thus far, finds itself at a crossroads as it approaches major national elections over the next year a…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Challenges to Tunisia’s Transition to Democracy

    Nov 21, 2017Mohammed Cherkaoui

    Recent moves by the Tunisian executive suggest that the Jasmine Revolution is not unfolding as smoothly as expected and that the country may not be the excepti…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaJustice, Equality, and Human Rights

    A New Tunisian Law Tackles Violence Against Women

    Sep 12, 2017Sahar Khamis

    The new Tunisian law against violence against women sets a new model for the Arab world to emulate and raises the bar in the struggle for women’s rights and ge…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    Tunisians Want a Better Economy and a Democratic System

    May 1, 2017Imad K. Harb

    Forty-nine percent of Tunisians consider improving the economy the topmost priority while 20 percent think that security is. An overwhelming majority want a de…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Democratization and Radicalization: Understanding Tunisia’s Model of Democratic Transition

    Feb 21, 2017Tamara Kharroub

    On February 1, 2017, German police arrested a Tunisian asylum seeker suspected of recruiting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and planning a…

  • Research Paper
    EgyptDemocracy and Governance

    The Gender Paradox of Arab Democracy

    Jun 22, 2016Tamara Kharroub

    On 17 December 2010, 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor Tarek al-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi was slapped across the face in front of a crowd and insulted by a munic…

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