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The Politics of Consensus: Al-Nahda and the stability of the Tunisian transition

McCarthy, Rory

Authors



Abstract

Tunisia&s transition away from authoritarianism has been shaped by a politics of consensus, which has brought together representatives of the former regime with their historic adversary, the Islamist movement al-Nahda. This article argues that consensus politics was a legacy of the authoritarian regime that was re-produced during a democratizing transition. The politics of consensus was encouraged and enabled by al-Nahda, which prioritized its inclusion within this elite settlement to provide political security for itself and the broader transition. However, this came at a cost, engineering a conservative transition, which did not pursue significant social or economic reform. The Tunisian case shows that historical legacies, such as consensus politics, can shape a transition as much as contingent, pragmatic decisions by political leaders.

Citation

McCarthy, R. (2019). The Politics of Consensus: Al-Nahda and the stability of the Tunisian transition. Middle Eastern Studies, 55(2), 261-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2018.1538969

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 8, 2018
Online Publication Date Jan 21, 2019
Publication Date 2019
Deposit Date Sep 2, 2019
Journal Middle Eastern Studies
Print ISSN 0026-3206
Electronic ISSN 1743-7881
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 55
Issue 2
Pages 261-275
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2018.1538969
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1293986
Related Public URLs https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b207ca18-b090-4773-b956-c5e9bfff49cf