Islamists, Secularists and Old Regime Elites in Tunisia: bargained Competition. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boubekeur, Amel
• Is Part Of: Mediterranean politics. Volume 21:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 107
• Page End: 127
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Mediterranean Region -- Politics and government -- 1945- -- Periodicals; 320.91822
• DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2015.1081449
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1362-9395

Abstract

Abstract: This article analyses the confrontations and compromises for domination of the political arena and its rules that are going on in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution between the Islamists of Ennahda party and the networks of so-called secularists and old regime elites – in particular, Nidaa Tounes. On the contrary to accounts that claim that the taming of ideological conflicts between religious and secular parties has given birth to a new democratic society, I argue that the new Tunisian order is the result of a particular type of post-authoritarian political culture that I call bargained competition. It consists in Islamists and old regime elites bargaining on their mutual reintegration and their monopolization of the post-revolutionary political scene while fiercely competing over political resources through various (often informal) power-sharing arrangements.