Tunisia’s democracy hangs in the balance
Tunisia’s moderate Islamist Ennahda party will seek to govern alone or in partnership with “the forces of the revolution”, its leader said on Friday, hinting at an end to five… Read more »
Category: Arab Spring
Renewing the promise of reconciling political Islam and democracy?
Jamal Khashoggi and I disagreed on almost all political issues, but we agreed on one thing: that the Arab world had profoundly changed in ways that rendered the old… Read more »
Tunisia: populism and cronyism risk ‘slide toward authoritarian tendencies’
Tunisia’s hopeful transition to a democratic future faces a new challenge. Voters in the country have delivered a sharp rebuke to their political elite. In the first round of presidential… Read more »
The Arab Region After the Uprisings: Struggling to define inclusive social contract
Since the 2011 uprisings, Arab countries have struggled to define a new social contract that would insulate their citizens from forces of exclusion—forces that range from poverty, inequality and unemployment… Read more »
As new civil movements gain strength, Tunisia a testing showcase for Islam and democracy
Today, as new democratic movements gather strength elsewhere in North Africa and Tunisia prepares for a presidential election on Sunday, the country’s role as a showcase for democracy in the… Read more »
Tunisia’s Islamists, secularists vie for power in world’s youngest democracy
On September 15, Tunisians will cast ballots in their country’s second free and democratic presidential election since the 2011 revolution, the Project on Middle East Democracy reports. The highly competitive… Read more »
Could Tunisia’s election reshape the political system?
Presidential candidates Selma Elloumi Rekik and Abir Moussi want to fight against creeping fundamentalism that has threatened Tunisian women’s freedoms and improve economic prospects for unemployed youth. Their chances of winning… Read more »
Another Arab Spring? Not if, but when
The social history of the MENA region is a history of social mobilization and the emergence of civil society. Across the Arab world, ordinary citizens have collectively engaged in resistance,… Read more »
Morsi’s ‘mixed legacy’ puts Muslim Brotherhood back in focus
Mohamed Morsi did a poor job as Egypt’s president before being ousted in a bloody military coup by the country’s current dictator, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. But the gross mistreatment Mr…. Read more »
North Africa’s transitions: prospects & obstacles
Like authoritarians elsewhere, [Arab autocrats] rely mostly on domestic tools, notes Amy Hawthorne, deputy director of research at the Project on Middle East Democracy. These include control over the military… Read more »