Budget politics and democratization in Tunisia: The loss of consensus and the erosion of trust

Abstract

Many have attributed the stalled democratization process in Tunisia to consensus politics that failed to bring about significant reforms capable of improving the socioeconomic situation for the majority of Tunisians. This article takes budget politics as a crucial example of a policy area in which decisions made on an annual basis ended up leading to massive public contention in January 2018 and 2019. Studying budget politics in the context of democratization – as a period with a particularly high need for trust – shows that, beyond their material shortcomings, the institutional-procedural failures of economic policies also damaged positive expectations regarding the new political institutions. The article compares different stages of the budget cycle during two consecutive years that saw massive contention surrounding the respective finance laws. A systematic press and document analysis, including of parliamentary minutes and social media posts, reveals a lack of transparency and participation in the budget process and, more importantly, an absence of political responsiveness and reliability vis-à-vis organized business, labor and social movements. Arguing against the idea that “too much” consensus was the root of problems at the time, this analysis shows that the erosion of trust was instead caused by untransparent, ad-hoc, volatile and arbitrary decision-making.