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The Awakening of Tunisia’s Civil Society? An analysis of the role of the Tunisian civil society in the development-democracy nexus.

Becharnia, Leila LU (2018) SIMV29 20181
Department of Political Science
Master of Science in Development Studies
Graduate School
Abstract
Following the Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisia remains the only country in the region that has managed to protect a fragile yet successful democratization process. Tunisians have protested against their deteriorating quality of life as well as a lack of political and civil freedoms, with the hope to transform their society into a more developed one. Since then, the country has lived through significant political, economic and social transformations that have left the institutional landscape of Tunisia more conducive to change. In particular, it seems that it is civil society that emerges as the entity that has benefited more from the newly established democracy. Based on the observation of the growth and transformation of Tunisian civil... (More)
Following the Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisia remains the only country in the region that has managed to protect a fragile yet successful democratization process. Tunisians have protested against their deteriorating quality of life as well as a lack of political and civil freedoms, with the hope to transform their society into a more developed one. Since then, the country has lived through significant political, economic and social transformations that have left the institutional landscape of Tunisia more conducive to change. In particular, it seems that it is civil society that emerges as the entity that has benefited more from the newly established democracy. Based on the observation of the growth and transformation of Tunisian civil society after 2011 and the regime change, this paper proposes to anchor the Tunisian experience within the democracy-development nexus. Indeed, a longstanding theoretical debate divides academia around the existence of a relationship between development and democracy. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory research is to identify if democracy has had an incidence over the levels of development, through the lens of the Amartya Sen’s capability approach. Overall, it shows that acquiring more capabilities through democratization has enabled civil society to grow in size, and gain room to manoeuvre towards the wellbeing of the country. Accordingly, that transformed civil society affected the lives of people, and has improved the levels of development of Tunisia. (Less)
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author
Becharnia, Leila LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMV29 20181
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Democracy, civil society, Sustainable Development Goals, capability approach, Tunisia
language
English
id
8947772
date added to LUP
2018-06-27 12:18:58
date last changed
2018-06-27 12:18:58
@misc{8947772,
  abstract     = {{Following the Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisia remains the only country in the region that has managed to protect a fragile yet successful democratization process. Tunisians have protested against their deteriorating quality of life as well as a lack of political and civil freedoms, with the hope to transform their society into a more developed one. Since then, the country has lived through significant political, economic and social transformations that have left the institutional landscape of Tunisia more conducive to change. In particular, it seems that it is civil society that emerges as the entity that has benefited more from the newly established democracy. Based on the observation of the growth and transformation of Tunisian civil society after 2011 and the regime change, this paper proposes to anchor the Tunisian experience within the democracy-development nexus. Indeed, a longstanding theoretical debate divides academia around the existence of a relationship between development and democracy. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory research is to identify if democracy has had an incidence over the levels of development, through the lens of the Amartya Sen’s capability approach. Overall, it shows that acquiring more capabilities through democratization has enabled civil society to grow in size, and gain room to manoeuvre towards the wellbeing of the country. Accordingly, that transformed civil society affected the lives of people, and has improved the levels of development of Tunisia.}},
  author       = {{Becharnia, Leila}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Awakening of Tunisia’s Civil Society? An analysis of the role of the Tunisian civil society in the development-democracy nexus.}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}