The Rise of Authoritarianism and the Challenge to

International Law
Fourth Reaction Paper :

1. What was the Arab Spring, launched by a revolution in Tunisia in 2011?

12 years ago Tunisians were fed up with corruption, repression and a lack of opportunity poured
into the streets and toppled a dictator, chanting for bread, freedom and dignity. Those chants
soon echoed across the Middle East in a chain of Arab Spring uprisings, kindling hopes that
democracy could bloom in Tunisia and beyond.

Six years later, Tunisia’s freely elected government granted an amnesty to corrupt former
officials who had looted the country before the 2011 revolution. To those who had battled for
change, as well as those who had never gotten justice for the former regime’s crimes, the 2017
amnesty came as a slap. Revolts withered over the past decade and authoritarian leaders across
the region had regained their grip on power. Therefore Tunisia remained the Arab Spring’s
greatest hope for democratic change.

2. How did Kais Saied become President of Tunisia?

Tunisians were disenchanted with the failure of their elected political leaders to make good on
the revolution’s promises, and thus voted overwhelmingly for an inexperienced outsider for
president in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, that president, Kais Saied, swept aside Parliament
and most other checks on his power to establish one-man rule.

The previous month, he solidified his power grab in a new Constitution approved by a national
referendum. More than a decade after Tunisia threw off authoritarian rule, the only surviving
democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring was nothing but dead.

3. What has he done to undermine democracy in Tunisia?

The democratically elected leaders failed to right the former regime’s wrongs or achieve
economic progress, leaving Tunisia with greater corruption, higher unemployment, widening
poverty and deeper debt a decade after the revolution. The country cycled through 10 prime
ministers in 10 years, a constant drum of instability that throttled progress. And it never bridged
deep religious-secular fault lines.

Abdellatif Mekki, a former health minister claimed that though people believe in revolution;
they have been switching from one political party to another, or to a person like Saied, hoping to
find someone who can obtain their revolution’s goals. Though swift, Mr. Saied’s dismantling of
Tunisia’s hard-won democratic gains was years in the making. In interviews with veterans of this
democracy-building experiment, they pinpointed a series of missteps that erased Tunisians’ faith
in the system.

When the country began writing a new constitution over the next two years, debates about how
prominently Islam should feature inflamed longstanding divides in the society. Under Ennahda
rule, Tunisians feared freedoms such as drinking alcohol and women’s rights; among the
strongest in the Arab world that could be lost.

4. What led to the unraveling of democracy in Tunisia?

Economic neglect and political instability unravelled democracy in Tunisia. Tunisians rejected
the ruthless repression of the previous six decades in 2011 and elected a transitional assembly
dominated by the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, which had been brutally suppressed and
demonized under former regimes.

The party’s main constituents were the poor, rural, conservative Tunisians who had first powered
the uprising. For the moment, at least, Ennahda seemed to stand for the revolution itself.

The Tunisians felt that Ennahda did not focus on economic and political overhauls, and his
ideologies would transform the country into something more akin to a theocracy than a secular,
liberal democracy.

Protesters had demanded action on socioeconomic inequality and high unemployment, especially
among young people who made up nearly a third of the population. But with the focus on
hammering out a new political system, those demands were largely ignored.

5. Why do you think the Arab Spring failed to produce any lasting democracies in the
region?

Most of Tunisia’s post-revolution leaders barely even realized they needed an economic plan.
When there was finally an economic crisis, the government was hesitant to cut down the wage
policy.

Their solution to address unemployment and fatten household budgets was speedy, if short
sighted: hiring hundreds of thousands of civil servants, raising government salaries and
borrowing from abroad to pay for it all.
This proved a costly mistake, stoking inflation as money poured in and burdening the country
with ever-growing national debt. The government became the country’s largest employer,
spending half its annual budget on the public payroll.

I believe that the Arab Spring started with high hopes but did not resort to democracy after all. It
had few positive developments which later failed to produce any lasting democracy.

1.End of Despotism: Iron fist of rule of the unjust and despotic rulers was put to an end.

2.Relatively more freedom: The people, highly alienated from basic human rights, find a relative
relief with the end of seeming dicatotorship.It visible from greater interaction with social media
which would not have been possible under iron-clad rule of the despots. Same can be
extrapolated to voting rights, participation in election in some countries.

3.Greater bargaining chip: Smaller countries can bargain better for gains for aid with the two
apparent blocs of Saudi Arabia and Iran.

However, there are startling failure on various fronts:

Anarchy: Vacuum post removal of leaders. It has bred ground for anarchism and barely has any
country been able to bring in stable govenment:

Mayhem: Loss in terms of lives and properties is enormous. Has given rise to refugee problem
further aggravating the human rights of people.

Sectarians Strife and rise of ISIS:The chasm between Sunni and Shias as well as other groups has
increased These fault line have further intensified by Saudi and Iran blocs with overtures to side
countries for promoting vested interest.

6. Are there any lessons for India from what happened in Tunisia?

I believe India would soon resort to Autocracy, if the opposition remain so feeble, and the
ruling party continues to make its ideologies based on Hinduism which is followed by the
majority in the country. Although the preamble of the Constitution is based on the
foundation of secularism, soon India may lose all its secular democracy if the government
continues to meddle with the emotions of people in the name of religion. It has not only
done this but has instilled in the minds of the people reasons to hate Muslims. It has
influenced the judiciary who is supposed to be an independent body, and gave its verdict
on a dispute favoring the majority in the Babri Masjid which has been in dispute since the
18th century. Not just this, it has use funds for futile purposes like holding competitions
for building tallest statues ranging to 300 foot.
 I think the citizens of India should awaken themselves and understand the consequences
of a government like this.

7. What did you find most interesting about the article?

I believe this article has brought the fallacies of the government in Tunisia since the past 12
years in the most compelling manner. The sufferings of Tunisian towards fulfilment of their
revolution was eye opening and also gave me an opinion on how achieving democracy can be
fatal for some countries and how some countries are actually autocratic in the name of
democracy.

8. What would you like to know more about?

I would like to know how international law and the justice system plays a role in helping
the citizens achieve their ideals, beliefs and goals.