4 - Tunisia’s Unfinished Revolution: Addressing Regional Inequality

Summary

Introduction

Regional disparities, which have plagued Tunisia since independence but were exacerbated by an official Ben Ali-era policy of favouring the coastal governorates, left the country deeply divided and fuelled the 2010–11 revolution. Tunisia began an official decentralisation process in May 2018, but four years later little progress has been made to devolve power from the central state to local authorities. The 2020 Coronavirus outbreak further divided the country, with more than half of the governorates lacking access to intensive care facilities at the outset of the pandemic. This chapter examines the causes and consequences of regional socio-economic inequality, including protest and violent extremism; assesses the successes and failures of the government's efforts at addressing this issue; and offers recommendations for local actors and international donors to improve governance at the local level and to level the playing field for the traditionally neglected interior and southern regions, in an effort to prevent instability in the future.

Regional marginalisation has been destabilising for Tunisia, leading to anger and frustration which has manifested in protest – most notably the 2010–11 revolution – as well as aided violent extremist recruitment, and it has led to increased regular and irregular migration and suicide. As Larbi Sadiki argues, ‘[w]hile politicians pay lip service to regional development, the gap continues to widen between power holders’ declaratory policies and local communities’ expectations’. Sadiki points to three forms of marginalisation simultaneously taking place in Tunisia:

First, it consists of regional estrangement from the body politic qua marginalisation, as the country's South and West are relegated to a marginal status. The second level is economic and developmental estrangement from value-making. This hinders the ability to create goods and services and find employment. The third aspect is human estrangement, whereby people are separated from national wealth and distributive justice. Here estrangement is a loss of agency and the potential for self-regeneration qua worthiness, identity and belonging.

Understanding the history of regional marginalisation in Tunisia and its manifestation today is crucial to addressing the political, social and economic challenges facing the country and, in turn, their impact on the broader MENA region as well as the West.