Since the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia, there has been a chance for democratization. The Political Opportunity Structure and the overall mobilization during the “Arab Spring” was huge. The recent elections show that Tunisian President Kais Saied won a second term. Even though the voter turnout was only 28.8, Saied seemed confident in arresting political opposition and critics of the regime. Among them are Abir Moussi and Ayachi Zammel. He quickly got rid of checks and balances, dissolved the elected parliament, and criticized the ‘rejectionists’ of the regime. In the video below, Sharan Grewal talks about the general dynamics of Tunisia’s political regime. He mentioned that the problem of Tunisian politics is the high emphasis on consensus, which led to the rise of populism. And, as a result, the rise of the Kais Saied. The need to find consensus brought two major parties, the Islamist and the secularist, to the center. And that gave rise to more radical parties to emerge on both ends. Sharan Grewal says that this polarization allowed Kais Saied to seize the power and amend to his own will. On the one side, Kais Saied is not that popular internationally, which may directly impact his popularity domestically and lead to the overthrow of his dictatorship in the long run. On the other side, the absence of any measure to sanction the presidential power in Tunisia has implicitly led to the rise of the presidential prerogatives and the high concentration of power. It seems commonsensical that deliberative democracy improves the lives of people, however example of Tunisia shows that ‘too much’ consensus can lead to bad circumstances as well.
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