Social and socio-territorial electoral base of political parties in post-revolutionary Tunisia

Bibliographic Data

ID3979415
AuthorsGilles Van Hamme (0000-0001-5245-5232, IGEAT, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium), Alia Gana (0000-0001-6743-3597, Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain), Maher Ben Rebbah (Géomatique et santé publique, Unité de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle, Paris, France)
Year2014
Volume19
Issue5
Pages751-769
Publication date2014-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2014.974032
OpenAlexW2010618287
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited10

By giving a comfortable advance to the Islamist party of Ennahdha (around 37% of the votes), the first free elections of independent Tunisia on 23 October 2011 have taken by surprise most observers. In this paper, we identify the social and socio-territorial bases of major Tunisian parties through combining quantitative analyses at different scales and field surveys in specific localities. Although most interpretations have focused on the cultural modernist vs. conservative cleavage, hence obscuring the class cleavage, our analyses highlight very differentiated socio-territorial electoral bases for the main parties and indicate deep social differences in voting behaviour, especially within cities. In addition, the consensus expressed by most parties about the need to reduce regional inequalities hides very dissimilar voting behaviour in peripheral and core areas. While allowing for a better interpretation of electoral results, our analyses also provide tools to understand possible evolutions within the Tunisian political space

Development economics · Economics · Electoral geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Political and Social Issues

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