The Disarticulation of Multi-Party Corporatism: State and Society under Ben Ali

Abstract

From the previous discussion it has become clear that Ben Ali has had two overarching policy priorities since coming to power: a complete structural reform of the economy and a simultaneous restructuring of the political system. Both policies are based on continuity as much as on change. There is nothing new in stating that the economic reforms of Ben Ali were the logical extension of nascent reforms which had been in the pipeline since the 1970s but which neither Bourguiba, nor influential elements of his elite, were prepared actually to implement. Ben Ali’s contribution, and it should not be under-estimated even by his most ardent critics, has been to take the plunge; to allow liberalization to gather an accelerating momentum and to put the weight of the state behind that wave of change. Bourguiba’s successor, should it have been other than Ben Ali, would have been hard pushed to hold back that dynamic for reform, but Ben Ali had the wisdom not simply to ride with the wave, or to attempt to resist the inevitable, but actually to engage the state in a constructive effort to shape the process even as he took advantage of propitious circumstances, international support and favourable domestic social forces. His ability to do so has been determined largely by his political restructuring, which is in many ways more complicated to understand.