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.