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Variegated forms of embeddedness: home-grown neoliberal authoritarianism in Tunisia under Ben Ali

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Abstract

This article aims to analyse the impact of structural adjustment programmes, widely known as the ‘neoliberal model’, on the resilience of authoritarianism during Ben Ali’s regime in Tunisia, to uncover the possible outcomes of the embedded neoliberal and the authoritarian blending. To do this, it engages with two sets of broad questions. How did the Ben Ali regime continue to maintain the regime’s tight grip on power in Tunisia during a ‘neoliberal’ transformation which in theory aims at reducing state influence? What does the Tunisian example tell us about the nature of embedded neoliberalism and its links with authoritarianism in general? The article answers these questions through the analysis of the novel social policy institutions of economic restructuring that took place during the Ben Ali era, namely the National Solidarity Fund, the Tunisian Solidarity Bank and the National Employment Fund. It concludes that these new tools under ‘neoliberal’ transformation increased state intervention in both politics and the economy, and reproduced the societal dependence on the state. Such form of neoliberalism has helped to sustain authoritarianism, but at the same time led to its demise when the social contract in which selective social benefits were provided in exchange for political loyalty failed.

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Notes

  1. In 1990, the share of agricultural and manufactured goods subject to price controls was 30%; this had decreased to 13% in 1994 (Rivlin 2009: 128).

  2. The privatisation was done in three phases: during the first phase (1987‒1994), small enterprises in tourism, trading, fishing and agro-food sectors had been sold. The second phase (1994‒1998) involved large enterprises in transportation sector. During the third period, after 1998, large and employment intensive companies in strategic sectors were sold (Alexander 2010: 81).

  3. The budget deficit, including grants from abroad, fell from an annual average of 5.4% of GDP in 1982–1986 to 4.1% in 1987–1989 (Rivlin 2009: 270).

  4. FDI recorded 3.7% of GDP on average between 2000‒2010 (World Bank 2014a: 37).

  5. Active labour market programmes (ALMPs) were first launched in 1981 to address employment challenges of graduates of vocational training institutes by offering wage subsidies and exemptions from social security to employers (World Bank 2013: 129).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) BIDEP 2232 Fellowship Program for supporting this article as well as the JIRD editors and three anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments and suggestions.

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  1. MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Evrim Görmüş

  2. Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, UK

    Emel Akçalı

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Görmüş, E., Akçalı, E. Variegated forms of embeddedness: home-grown neoliberal authoritarianism in Tunisia under Ben Ali. J Int Relat Dev 24, 408–429 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-020-00196-7

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