‘아랍의 봄’10년 후

10 Years After the Arab Uprising: Revisiting the ‘successful’ Democratization in Tunisia

Tunisia is considered the only country that went through bottom-up mobilizations in 2011 and has then successfully shifted from an authoritarian system to a democracy. At the same time, however, the country is witnessing an upsurge of protests organized by many Tunisian people who took to the street against the dictator and called for democracy. They are staging protests with the same slogans and demands that were raised during the revolutionary moments. How do we make sense of their frustration and grievance in the context of democratizing Tunisia? This article aims to address this question by examining democracy promoted by the Tunisian authorities and democracy called for by the Tunisian people. It argues that these two do not refer to the same thing. There exist gaps and tensions between the post-2011 democratic system, which follows a liberal model of democracy, and the people’s longing for democracy.