Tunisia's Transition to Democracy: Explaining Variation in Local Councils

Following the 2011 revolution in Tunisia, new municipal councils called Special Delegations were appointed throughout the country. Activists and protesters thus were institutionalized a council members. This paper examines the period during which the Islamist party, Ennahda, was in power at the national level, and specifically before and after September 2013. During this time period, the composition of some Special Delegations changed despite a lack of municipal elections. The paper poses three questions: 1) why did the composition of some of the Special Delegations change during this time period; 2) what is the political significance of this variation; and 3) how can it inform our understanding of democratic transitions? Based on both quantitative and qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2012, 2014 and 2015, we compare four municipalities, two in which the municipal council composition did not change and two in which it did. We argue that the changes in some Special Delegations reflect top-down pressures for change. Indeed, they represent the will of Ennahda, following its elections at the national level, to have what it perceived as the ‘rightful’ distribution of seats in municipal councils. It thus sought to use the administrative structure that remained in place from prior to the revolution to politicize the councils. Councils that had both unity and capacity were able to successfully resist national political pressures. Unity and Capacity were directly related to a history of activism in the Tunisian General Labour Union. Municipalities with histories of oppositional activity were unable to resist politicization from above unless that activity was union-based. The paper indicates the importance of pre-existing networks to the successful institutionalization of protestors and civil society actors in the transition to democracy.