Between traps and tolerations: Tunisia’s chance of democracy under the aspects of benevolent secularism

Abstract In the aftermath of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia emerged as the last survivor of the Arab Spring. However, in recent years, this progress has been significantly reversed under President Kais Saied, who has consolidated power in recent years, seemingly dismantling Tunisia’s hard-earned democratic institutions. This paper seeks to propose that the factors that have led Tunisia toward authoritarianism can be traced back to the exclusion of parties that centre around values of Islam, like the Ennahda party. This is done using the concept of Benevolent Secularism which posits that secularism can be a trap for emerging democracies in a power struggle between religious and secular elites. Tunisia, as the first and last country of the Arab Spring provides a compelling case for examining whether Benevolent Secularism with an inclusion of religious values into democratic institutions could provide a more stable foundation for democracies. By analysing Tunisia’s constitutional developments and political transformations from 1959 to 2022, this paper explores whether integrating religious perspectives into governance could avoid the so-called secularism trap and foster a distinct, culturally adapted form of democracy in Tunisia and other non-Western nations.