The democratic ‘transition’ in post-revolution Tunisia: conditions for successful ‘consolidation’ and future prospects

The evolutionary processes of the so called ‘arab spring’ and its associated political transformations have been and still remain highly unpredictable and almost impossible to systematically account for. this paper explores the conditions that allowed tunisia, the birth place of the ‘arab spring,’ to achieve successful democratising outcomes in comparison to its neighbours across the middle east and north africa (mena) region. the paper will also offer some analysis of future scenarios for sociopolitical developments based on current context and projected outlook. this paper argues that one of the key ingredients that allowed a relatively peaceful ‘political transition’ in tunisia is the constructive approach to consensus politics adopted by the key political actors including the islamist party ennahda. consensus politics created what can be termed an ‘authentic tunisian approach,’ a combination of political pragmatism, acceptance of power-sharing and a progressive social positioning in key national debates.