The Search for Citizenship in Bin Ali's Tunisia

Democracy versus Unity

Bibliographic Data

ID6344334
AuthorsLarbi Sadiki (0000-0002-3777-7046, University of Exeter, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume50
Issue3
Pages497-513
Publication date2002-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-9248.00381
OpenAlexW2046863591
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited44

Commitment to unity can hinder democracy, rendering the search for pluralism into an exercise in political singularity. I contest the thesis within the theory of democratic transition that national cohesion and ethnic homogeneity are essential preconditions for democracy. Tunisia is an ethnically homogeneous society, but seems to be unable to seize on the opportunity to transcend the threshold of democracy. The Tunisian example suggests that democracy (that is, an ethos of toleration of difference), should be rethought as one essential precondition for cohesion within democratising polities. The analysis unpacks how ‘fragmented’ politics works in the North African country. Politics becomes ‘fragmented’ when ‘loyalty’ to the state's discourse of ‘citizenship’ and ‘identity’, becomes the one distinguishing feature by which political community is defined and membership within it is determined. National unity is another word for political uniformity. Thus understood the state's imperative of unity and uniformity contradicts political pluralism and demotes rather than promotes democratic development

Citizenship · Democracy · Epistemology · Pluralism (philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Religion and Society Interactions

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