When free and fair elections are not enough: Party fragmentation and unaccountability in Tunisia.

This chapter examines the transformation of Tunisia’s political landscape against the backdrop of the legislative and local elections held in the country from 2011 to 2019. Celebrated by the media, policymakers and international organizations as the democratic exception in the MENA region, 11 years after the “Jasmin Revolution”, Tunisia is, however, far from being a fully-fledged democracy. Despite a procedural democracy being in place through the guarantee of free and fair elections, over the years the country’s political system have displayed a high party fragmentation and a long list of unstable governments. The contribution shows that despite party pluralism on paper, most parties have been indistinguishable on crucial issues such as socio-economic rights and regional inequalities, issues that had been the beacon of the revolutionary processes of 2011. Notably, political competition has been mostly absorbed by the Islamist/secular divide, thus blurring the ideological boundaries of the different political actors at play. The lack of political offerings in turn has led to widespread discontent among Tunisian voters, who have become increasingly alienated from the main political parties in the field. Over the years, disaffection from politics has led to a growing detachment from the electoral process, also visible in the declining turnout, thus endangering the country’s democratic order. Overall, the fragmentation of the Tunisian party system and the unresponsiveness of local governments over time seem to have been the sinister premonitory sign of the country’s slide into a phase of democratic involution, marked by the president’ Kaïs Saïed decision taken in July 2021 to suspend parliament.