Perceptions of the Turkish Model in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia

Yıldız Social Science Review, 2018

Uprisings in Tunisia started a new are in the region of Arab countries. Manifestations and protests took place in the country even after the Jasmine Revolution had happened. Transition to democracy from autocracy brought discussions regarding the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Consequently, from the beginning of Arab Spring, Republic of Turkey with majorly Muslim population was pointed out as a role model for Tunisia and other countries in the region where uprisings took place. In this context, the following questions became the main subjects of this study; does Tunisia need a model to follow? What do Tunisians think about Turkey? What is the background and actuality of Turkish-Tunisian relationship? This study, which is a part of Marie Currie Research Project funded by European Commission, shows the Tunisian reflection regarding the aforementioned questions.

ABSTRACT: The revolutions that took place in North Africa and the Middle East in 2010-2011, subsumed to the Arab Spring have different results/effects depending on country-specific characteristics and factors. Depending on the historical legacy, the evolution of institutions in each state, the involving of national and international players etc. we can find a wide range of outcomes of the Arab Spring. If Tunisia is now considerd the successful example of the transition to democracy, in Egypt the military returned to its dedicated role - "savior of the people" and the establishment of another authoritarian regime. Although during the revolutions of 2011 there were no slogans and no religious claims, however, the Arab Spring has meant a "revival of Islam." In all MENA countries where dictators feared opposition forces with Islamic doctrine, these partiesor movements were banned before the revolutions of 2010-2011, as it was the case of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Immediately after the revolutions of 2011, parties with Islamist ideology asserted themselves on the political scene in Tunisia - such as En Nahda - and in Egypt - Freedom and Justice Party which has strong links to the Muslim Brotherhood. They succeeded, through democratic means, to gain political power, then they were removed from governance either because of new elections - the case of En Nahda din Tunisia - either because of "the new revolution" or "coup" as they were called the events of June-July 2013 in Egypt. In 2014 Egypt and Tunisia have adopted the new Constitutions and formulated options regarding the relation "secular-Islamic" in the functioning of societies. This paper aims to highlight the extent to which internal political actors in Tunisia and Egypt asserted their options for a secular or an Islamic State, from 2011 to the present. KEYWORDS: Arab Spring, secular State, Islamic State, power, political Islam.

Insight Turkey

As far as the discussions on the Muslim world have been concerned with the process of secularization, a major focus has been the question of whether Islam and democracy are compatible. The religious-oppositional-civil movements that have been revived since the 1980s, has prompted a reformulation of the question as follows: "are secularization/laicism and democracy compatible?" or, put differently, "are the enemies of democracy in the Middle East, not the Islamic parties, but the secular regimes" From this perspective, there has been a shift from the dominance of the French type of authoritarian, exclusivist and monopolistic laicism to a pluralistic understanding of secularization, influenced by the resurgence of political Islam in Tunisia after the Jasmine Revolution.

Recently there have been arguments about the unwillingness of the political Islamists towards democracy or the impossibility of any harmony between the two due to especially the recent developments in Turkey. Arguments go as “Never enter into alliance with the Islamists”, “Never trust them with democracy” and the old familiar assertion that “Islam is inherently incompatible with democracy.” While it is a pretty much accurate observation that most of the liberals and leftists in the region who for long supported Islamists have been frustrated by their actions and no longer trust them with democracy especially in the case of Turkey. Some still choose to be hopeful for them to embrace democratic values and freedoms. This research is an academic endeavor to understand and discuss if an Islamic democracy is possible and the conditions for it. It will open to debate if the Muslim social movements in the Middle East can really embrace a truly democratic state and abide by the rules of this structure. This paper will attempt to accomplish the mentioned endeavor and seeks to evaluate the above arguments about the political Islamists’ behavior by comparing the two conflicting cases of Turkey and Tunisia where Islamists elected to power and for a time had the opportunity to rule their countries. It intends to contribute to the literature at hand about the compatibility of Islam and democracy or a possible Islamic democracy. This research will also critically engage with the ‘moderation through inclusion’ argument through these cases. It intends to contribute to the literature at hand about the compatibility of Islam and democracy and political behavior and actions of Islamist elites.

Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Democratization and Government, 2020

Investigating the political transition after the 2011 Tunisian revolution, this book explores whether civil society is fulfilling its democratic functions. Examining the existence of a civil political culture, that is identified through the presence of the six criteria of Freedom, Equality, Pluralism, Tolerance, Trust, and Transparency. The innovation of the volume lies in its critiques of the “transitology” literature, its illustration of the drawbacks of culturalist and Orientalist narratives of Arab politics, and the complexity it notes with respect to civil society and its varied roles, especially that civil society is not always an unconditionally “good” or democratic force. Using a combination of survey, interview, and observation research approaches, these chapters engage with the development of democratic political culture and democratic knowledge in civil society organisations (CSOs) by understanding how CSOs interact with the state, other CSOs, and their members. Presenting both critical theoretical arguments and extensive empirical evidence to demonstrate why Tunisia is such an important case, this book will be of interest to students and researchers interested in political culture, civil society, and Middle East and North African studies.

Middle East Critique, 2013

Since 2011, the Arab uprisings, signaling a new wave of political mobilization, have restored belief in the potential for civil society to make democratic openings. Nevertheless, the academic literature up to the present has attributed the enduring authoritarianism in the Middle East region to the weakness or dominantly Islamist nature of civil society and promoted the development of secular platforms. This article argues that the discussion about civil society is misplaced, and the democratic potential of civil society is not related to its being Islamic or secular, but rather to its attachment to the state. For this purpose, it examines the emergence of a secularist civil societal current in Turkey with special focus on one of its major manifestations, the Republic Rallies in 2007.

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2023

Both Turkey and Tunisia have attracted significant attention regarding their democratization and religious politics. While Turkey was considered a successful case of blending Islam and democracy in the decade of 2000s, it plunged into autocratization in the following decade. Tunisia became the only Arab spring country to go through democratic transition between 2011 and 2015 but 6 years later, an elected president grabbed power over the democratic institutions. Inspired by the elite theories of democratization and combining the comparative method with a within-case analysis, this article evaluates the regime trajectories of the two countries, emphasizing the points of convergence and divergence. First, it argues that the emergence of a power symmetry between the elites representing the religious-secular cleavage constituted a critical juncture in each case, paving the way for democratic reforms. Second, it argues that the power symmetry was of an adversarial nature in Turkey and a consensual nature in Tunisia, which affected the elite choices to deal with the masses in different ways. The article concludes with a discussion of how the elite-mass interactions ultimately eroded the power symmetries and reversed the democratic processes in Turkey and Tunisia.

Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, 2022

The political turmoil in Tunisia at the end of 2010 opened the door to the democratization of Arab countries. This event, widely known as The Arab Spring, presented a dream for the Arab community to live a better life under a democratic system. However, after a decade of progress, only Tunisia has succeeded in consolidating its democracy among the Arab countries that have been affected by the political turmoil. This paper tries to read the success factors for Tunisia in consolidating its democracy by using the theory of democracy from Robert Dahl, Jack Snyder, and Georg Sorensen. This study concludes that democracy in Tunisia is already included in the category of matured democracy according to Snyder's theory or has entered the category in which a democratic culture has begun to develop (Sorensen) and fulfills the elements of a democratic state according to Dahl. This success is inseparable from internal and external factors. The internal factor is the foundation of a civil society built before The Arab Spring and the openness of viewpoints of political actors after the political upheaval. Meanwhile, the external factor is the absence of America as the dominant actor in Tunisia because Tunisia is considered a ferry country. Tunisia also proves that Islam and democracy can go hand in hand, and this is a refutation of the pessimistic views of the scholars on Islam and democracy that can go hand in hand.

In this article, I analyze the extent to which Turkish experience provided and continues to provide a model for democratization in North Africa and the Middle East (MENA). Using the 2011 (Arab Spring) mass movements, and the resulting shifts from autocratic regimes toward democratic ones, I argue that the Turkish experience offered a framework for MENA countries to address radical tendencies. The promise of the Turkish model existed despite the categorical rejection of protest by Turkish authorities.

This article attempts, in its own small way, to make a brief assessment of the debate over Turkey`s role as a model, and the process of democratization as one of the most significant elements of this model. Within the context of a renewed interest in the subject in general, the relevance of the Turkish experience in democratization to the process of political reform in the Arab and Muslim world has become a focus of debate. While Turkey is promoted by some as a model for Islamic countries, others have argued that its experience is irrelevant to the issues of democratization in the Middle East.