1,720,970 research outputs found
Political Parties in Post-Uprising Tunisia and Morocco. Organization, Development and Legitimation
No full textThis book offers a comparative, theory-grounded study of Maghrebi political parties since the Arab uprisings, specifically focused on Tunisia and Morocco in the first decade after the 2011 watershed elections.
Based on primary sources, including in-depth interviews and updated party statutes and bylaws, the Author introduces four case studies of key Islamist and anti-Islamist parties, exploring their organisational standing, internal working, and legitimating assets. A topic long neglected, the reader will gain insight into the ‘hybrid’ nature of political parties in the Maghreb, oscillating between juxtaposed traditional and modern discourses and ambivalent sources of political authority. As such, it is hybridisation that shapes parties’ organisational choices and development and accounts for party differences. In the wake of political liberalisation, the Author argues that political parties have become increasingly distant from society, distrusted by large proportions of the citizenry. Ultimately, the Tunisian and Moroccan cases invite reflection on similar phenomena taking place within the Middle East and North Africa region, and even outside of it.
Bridging disparate disciplines, including comparative politics, area studies, and contemporary Middle Eastern history, the book will be of interest to a broad range of graduate-level students and academics
Interdisciplinary Political Studies
No full textInterdisciplinary Political Studies (IdPS) aims to pursue two goals: affirming the importance of rigorous, high-quality Open Access publishing in the field of Political Studies, without imposing article processing charges to authors, and opening the fields of comparative politics and international relations to the contribution of other related disciplines. It is open to scholars studying political issues through the lens of several social science disciplines such as political science, international relations, political theory, political economy, sociology, legal studies and contemporary history. Interdisciplinary analyses are particularly welcome. It publishes two issues per year focusing on domestic and international politics. All papers are subject to a rigorous process of double-blind peer-review
“Modernization” by “Professionalization”? The counter-examples of the PAM and Nidaa Tounes in Morocco and Tunisia
No full textComparatively, little is still known about the development of Arab political parties, too often viewed as “outlandish” or reduced to the religion-secularism divide. Starting from the assumption that many aspects should be analyzed for a deeper understanding of political parties in complex and increasingly post-ideological societies, this chapter compares two non-Islamist parties through the lens of professionalization and how this intersects with a perceived idea of modernity. Based on the literature on party change and resorting to Weber’s analytical categories, the chapter frames professionalization in terms of specific expertise, experience, and ethos (the three E’s). The main contention is that the parties under scrutiny are counter-models of professionalization in that they largely sidestep it, albeit their rhetorical commitment to modernity and progress. The rationale of this chapter is to stimulate a broader debate on the issue in Arab politics, but also outside of it as literatures on different geographic contexts should begin to engage more closely with each other
Politica Europea di Vicinato nel Mediterraneo: Criticità e Prospettive di Rilancio
No full textThe book chapter makes a critical assessment of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) towards the North African and Middle Eastern (MENA) region since 2011. By comparing the strategic documents issued in 2011 by the EU Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy as a response to the Arab uprisings with its revision in 2015, the chapter discusses the significance of the notion of "resilience" as guiding principle of the renewed approach. At the same time, it highlights the persistence of a neo-liberal approach and acknowledges a significant shift back to the prioritization of the security dimension over that of democracy promotion. Taking into account the drawbacks to this approach, the contribution points to the support from the MENA region in keeping the ENP alive and well functioning as highlighted by a recent survey. Finally, in the section devoted to policy recommendations, it recalls challenging options for its improvement, like the idea of opt-in policy communities
Missing Youth in Tunisia? Implications of Regional Disparities and Center-Periphery Divide
No full textIn the post-2011 euphoria, ‘Youth’ were taken to embody dynamism and positive change, often presented as a synonym for the ‘marginalized,’ the mistreated and repressed part of society most suffering from authoritarian rule. The expectation which followed is that after 2011 this marginalized ‘youth’ could finally release its energies and make its voice heard.
But Tunisian youth continue to face many of the same challenges eight years on as before the revolt: high unemployment rates, economic exclusion, and political disillusion. Yet, the problems are not evenly distributed across the country.
Regional divides have a greater descriptive and explanatory power than the generational divide tout court. What does this mean for the discourse of ‘youth’? This essay first examines the emergence of ‘youth’ as a hybrid social and political category in Tunisia, pointing to the ‘fluidity’ of such a concept, even in the official state-led discourse prior to and post 2011. It then accounts for regional disparities among youth in terms of ‘center-periphery’ dynamics, in particular providing insights from the governorate of Tataouine, traditionally one of the most marginalized regions in the country
Personalism in MENA politics. The case of Tunisia
No full textThis chapter reflects on personalism as striking feature of post-colonial Arab regimes and how it transfers into the party systems building on the tradition of the zaʿim. The focus is on the Tunisian partisan landscape as a particularly fertile ground for personalist parties and evidence of the contradictions they embody. In a context of a liberalized political arena, a process of personalistic atomisation has taken root and resulted in a myriad of leadership-centric formations without a meaningful party structure as counterweight. The chapter argues that, in forging and preserving Tunisian personalist parties, charisma plays a big role, albeit not necessarily, as multiple factors often come in like personal wealth, and neo-patrimonial linkages. Moreover, these parties tend to be short-lived and pretty unstable, experimenting sudden and sharp ups and down, which are actually only loosely related to the “adjustment” phase of Tunisian politics
Bridging the gap between Tunisian central state and cross-border regions: inclusive strategies to cope with marginalization
No full textThe prolonged absence or ambivalent presence of the state, pressure from the collapse of Libya, and the illicit trafficking of goods and people combine to make Tunisian southern cross-border areas highly sensitive hubs of permanent instability, whose unpredictably reverberate both nationally and regionally. Given that a shared narrative of exclusion, marginalization, and humiliation has successfully mobilized people against central authority –which preferred to police and securitize these territories and communities rather than administer them –there is an urgent need for a comprehensive strategy of restoring state legitimacy to address both material claims and the feeling of state abandonment. Such a strategy would help tackle the factors that generate cross-border insecurity in the longer term. In particular, newly elected municipal councils should enact new behaviors and styles of governance to foster rapprochement between citizens and public institutions; civil society organizations should constructively work to maintain a fruitful and trustful relationship between the citizenry and its elected representatives; and central state authorities should be more responsive to local needs
Political Islam Inside-Out. Adaptation and Resistance of Islamist Movements and Parties in North Africa.
No full textThis book analyses the evolution of key Islamist movements and parties in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. It offers a novel and exhaustive study of the evolution of Islamists as shaped by the interplay of domestic, regional, and international factors.
Providing an in-depth, theoretically grounded and empirically rich study of political Islam, the volume explores how the overly under-appreciated interaction of domestic, regional and international factors impacts the development of contemporary Islamist actors. By tracing how they adapt and resist to challenging environments within and beyond national boundaries, it charts and explains many of the critical changes and continuities in their organisational set-up, policy choices, ideological leanings, and narratives. Through an inside-out perspective and actor-centered approach, this book aims to overcome the ‘compartmentalisation’ of the domestic and international spheres as well as the ‘obsession’ with moderation for Islamists. Specifically, the book chapters address how Islamist actors (re)interpret external events, norms, ideas, and practices from abroad in the light of the constraints and opportunities of their respective domestic environments. At the crossroads of comparative politics, international relations and area studies, it is a key resource for practitioners and scholars interested in party politics, social movements, political Islam and North Africa
Competing orders in cross-border areas of limited statehood: the cases of Southern Tunisia and Northern Mali micro-regions’
No full textThis chapter aims to compare emerging cross-border dynamics in two micro-regions,
Tunisia’s South-eastern border and Northern Mali, characterized by several elements that point to the infringement of the central authority’s capacity to implement decisions and effective state control, thus depicting situations typical of areas of limited statehood. Among those features, the peculiar nature of the borders, mostly desert, representing a natural obstacle in terms of patrolling for state official authorities, but also a challenge for competing non-state actors; the existence of tribal allegiances; the involvement of multiple centres of power; the illicit flows of goods (and people) favouring an underground economy, as well as the widespread sentiment of abandonment among the populace. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the authors will trace the ambivalent relations between central state and peripheral regions, assess the evolution of the security situation and the impact that the 2011 uprisings and the 2013 Malian conflict had in these complex sub-systems
From Counter-Terrorism to Preventing Violent Extremism: Security Practices and Approaches in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia.
No full textThe international policy and research agenda has increasingly emphasized terrorism as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and thus the need to expand the toolkit with which to relate to it beyond the exclusively force-based approaches typical of counter-terrorism. Prevention of violent extremism and radicalization are examples of this. A newly democratized polity grappling with unprecedented terrorist challenges, Tunisia has since 2015-2016 featured a paradigmatic shift from a state-centric perspective, contingency-based approach mainly focused on counter-terrorism to a more inclusive, long-term strategy involving society at large in counter-radicalization efforts. This chapter thus accounts for the gradual diversification of the security strategies in the country focusing particularly on the prevention dimension. Reviewing pivotal terrorist attacks in the first post-revolution decade, it argues that this change of pace in security approaches and practices is the result of the interplay of international and national orientations. By illustrating the main initiatives that both local and foreign actors have carried out, the chapter also claims that preventing violent extremism has failed to replace counter-terrorism, but meritoriously complements the latter’s predominant military focus with new, more comprehensive measures
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