The National Constituent Assembly of Tunisia and Civil Society Dynamics. EUSpring Working Paper No. 2, 8 July 2015

The Tunisian constitution of 27 January 2014 was deemed essentially compatible with international human rights principles and standards. These were adopted at the outcome of a dual process, which was underway both inside the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) and outside it, between the NCA and civil society stakeholders. Three successive drafts fell considerably short of expectations (6 August 2012, 14 December 2012 and 22 April 2013). The fourth draft (1 June 2013) was still fraught with 20 or so fundamental divergences. These were resolved, thanks to the National Dialogue in cooperation with the ad hoc “consensus commission” (lajnet tawafuqat) within the NCA, which is chaired by Mustapha Ben Jaafar (President of the NCA). The final text was overwhelmingly adopted on 26 January 2014 by 200 votes, with 12 against and four abstentions. It was promulgated on 10 February

Tunisia. Supervising Tunisian Elections by civil society: How to improve it? Arab Citizenship Review No. 7. January 2015

Introduction. On October 26, 2014, Tunisia held its second democratic legislative elections. Participation among more than 5 million registered voters was at about 60%, a relatively good turnout for the country, compared to the 52% voters in 2011. Preliminary results for the 33 constituencies (27 within the country and 6 for expatriates) reveal that secular frontrunner Nidaa Tounes (Call of Tunisia) won around 37% percent of votes while moderate Islamist party Ennahdha, winner of the 2011 elections and leader of Tunisia’s post-revolution government, received 27% of votes. Other parties with notable percentages are the Free Patriotic Union (French: UPL) with 4.4% and the leftist party, Popular Front, with 3.7%. Legislative were immediately followed by two round presidential elections the first one held on November 23, the second one after one month. Conversely to what was expected, people were more attracted by presidential elections even though president has notably less prerogatives than the parliament: representing the state, he is mainly responsible for determining the general state policies in the domains of defense, foreign relations and national security (article 76.) This paradox is ascribed to national imaginary more confident in a “Zaïm” (leader) rather than a collective institution such as a parliament. The turnout was at about 64% within the national 27 constituencies. Out of 70 candidates (including 5 female), 27 (with only one female) met the legal requirements to run for the presidency. The result confirms the legislative trend and Beji Caid Essebsi, leader of Nidaa, was proclaimed the third President of Tunisia. He gained 39.46% of the votes at the first round elections. Essebsi was followed by Moncef Marzouki who received an unexpected score (33.43%) at the first round, thanks to the support of Ennahdha audience and to an active and insistent campaign focused on the idea that revolution is threatened by old regime guard “come-back.” Rewarded for his long militant live, the extreme leftist Hamma Hammami in a new look gained 7,8% of the votes while the new comer Slim Riahi received 5,5% despite rumors circulating on his personal reputation. Notably, Kalthoum Kennou gained 0,55% (18.287 votes) but listed eleventh out of 27

Shall Tunisia Succeed in Becoming a Strong Democratic State? EUSpring Arab Citizenship Review No. 13, December 2015

From the Introduction. Arab revolutions have sparked real hopes for democracy, but the situation varies from one state to another and change has taken various directions, with unpredictable outcomes in the future. In light of current events, most of these countries seem to have failed in their democratic transition and also face the dissolution of their state apparatus in bloody civil wars. This leaves the door open to interpretations associating democracy with chaos. In this view, preserving post-colonial states – authoritarian in most cases – is better than having no state at all. This partially justified the coup that took place in Egypt, where the ‘Deep State’ has recovered its capabilities in a dictatorial manner. The Arab world thus faced an impasse: the state is either stable but authoritarian or democratic yet threatened with dissolution. The dilemma results in an impossible choice between stable dictatorship or freedom ending in chaos

Dynamique des mœurs et de la politique dans la culture islamique

La problématique public/privé en Islam suscite immédiatement un certain nombre d’objections, et même des soupçons sur sa pertinence épistémologique, les mêmes du reste qu’on observe chaque fois qu’on veut plier l’Islam à une grille de lecture dont les concepts, les protocoles de validation théorique et l’histoire empirique relèvent d’une autre historicité, celle de l’Occident moderne. Mais si on veut que la science sociale puisse avoir encore quelque chose à nous dire, il faudra, je crois, se..

Islam et laïcité : un seul lit pour deux rêves

Émile Poulat dit qu’il n’existe pas en France d’histoire du mot laïcité, a fortiori en islam. Bernard Lewis affirme que le turc Ziad Gökalp a été le premier à l’utiliser dans les années trente du xxe siècle, cependant le sens du mot est bien présent dès le xixe siècle dans la littérature arabe. L’islam n’avait pas de mot pour désigner la laïcité qu’il découvre au xixe siècle. Le mot fut transcrit vocalement tel quel, « layik ». Très tôt, le mot a effrayé les intellectuels arabes si bien que p..

The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring has turned into a long season. It began very optimistically as a movement to democratize the Middle East and North Africa. It has not turned out that way. Egypt is torn between the Muslim Brotherhood and those seeking a more secular government. Tunisia is still unstable and Syria is engaged in a bloody civil war. So what is the future of the Arab Spring? Two of the panel of experts who will speak at Black Mountain join us to examine those issues

The Arab Spring: Between Hopes & Impediments

In this episode, writers and professors John Entelis, Hamadi Redissi, Sophie Bessis, and Mustapha Marrouchi discuss the popular uprisings that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 and the prospects for the future of the Arab Spring

Dossier: Linee di conflitto. Il mondo arabo in trasformazione

Integrazione nei processi globali e peculiarit\ue0 regionali sono due elementi-chiave per contestualizzare l\u2019oggetto di ricerca specifico del dossier: ossia, se e come le rivolte del 2011 abbiano ri-configurato i conflitti sociali e politici che caratterizzano la regione. I primi tre saggi affrontano i temi dello sviluppo economico, del rapporto tra religione e Stato e delle relazioni di genere come questioni trasversali a tutti i Paesi arabi e sulle quali si posizionano le vecchie e nuove forze politiche in lotta per il potere. A questi seguono i casi-studio nazionali che, invece, si addentrano nelle specificit\ue0 dei diversi territori mettendone in luce i cambiamenti come anche le fratture di pi\uf9 lunga durata

Public et privé en Islam

Les deux catégories de public et de privé sont-elles universelles ou particulières ? Peuvent-elles rendre compte de la dynamique des « sociétés musulmanes » ? C’est à partir d’une analyse de la trilogie espaces, autorités publiques et libertés individuelles que ce livre collectif voudrait interroger les notions de public et de privé et étudier autrement l’évolution des cultures et des sociétés où la religion islamique est un référent majeur. La diversité des sujets traités (la privacy, la communication, la culture politique, l’urbain, les conflits familiaux, le harem, les seuils, les pratiques habitantes, la régulation étatique de la religion, l’intérêt général, la moralité, le cinéma et la censure des moeurs) concourt à illustrer aussi bien les interpénétrations et les transitions que les frontières et les distinctions entre ces deux sphères structurantes de la vie individuelle et collective : celle publique et celle privée. Des approches différentes puisant dans plusieurs domaines du savoir humain (histoire, droit, architecture, science politique, sociologie, anthropologie) sont adoptées en vue de susciter un vaste débat théorique et empirique ayant pour objectifs à la fois de repenser les notions de public et de privé et de renouveler la compréhension de l’Islam contemporain