Ilyas Saliba
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Tunisian Transition and the Parliamentary Elections

11/15/2014

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Election office in a school in Gammarth, Tunis on election day

In the last week of October I went to Tunis in order to experience the second elections after the ousting of the dictator Ben-Ali in 2011. The most important thing first: According to international and domestic observers the parliamentary elections met domestic and international standards and can be considered free, fair and meaningfully democratic. 

During my days in Tunis I spoke to different stakeholders and observers in Tunis from civil society activists to diplomats and election observers. Despite the different perspectives their take on the elections was mainly positive, not least due to the fact that the electoral process went so smoothly and the much feared political violence or contestation of the results did not occur.

However turing away from the elections itself to the broader developments in Tunisia since the fall of Ben-Ali the views widely varied with regards to the evaluation of hitherto accomplishments and future propects of the transition process. Whereas some actors I talked to highlighted the inclusive and consesus-seeking nature of the process and mentioned the crucial role of civil society, others critically noted the polarization of political discourse, the predominance of backdoor politics and the return of ancient regime personel on the political stage.

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tunisian voter at the ballot box
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father with his son on the way to cast his vote

In the running up towards the elections I have written two pieces trying to analyze the unique tunisian trajectories during the last four years. The first one for the Blog Al-Qantara has been dedicated to analyze the process up until the elections and sketch out some of the problematic areas that still remained untouched. A second, more policy oriented piece for the political IPG journal -run by the Friedrich Ebert foundation- has focussed on the challenges ahead for any new tunisian government in place and identified how Europe may help Tunisia in its transition and contribute to consolidate democracy in Tunisia.

  • Der Tunesische Sonderweg – Oped on IPG Internationale politik und Gesellschaft (October 2014) available online (german only)
  • The model student faces difficult tasks – Oped on Al Qantara (October 2014) available online (in german, english and arabic)
Unfortunately the first piece is only vailable in german. The Second one has been translated into english and arabic. However I have decided to shift away from publishing non-academic opeds and blog contributions exclusively within the german media outleds. Consequently on the bucket-list for next year are contributions in english newspapers or blogs.

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young tunisians discussing the elections after they voted over a coffee
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BBAW conference: Understandings of democracy in Europe & the World

6/14/2014

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In the beginning of April this year I was involved in an international conference organized jointly by the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Science (BBAW) and the Studienkolleg zu Berlin. The conference was supported by the Fritz-Thyssen foundation and the Allianz Kulturstiftung. The bold headline was: “Understandings & meanings of democracy in Europe and the World”. We had some interesting speakers and outstanding scholars participating in this open doors event. The program of the event can be found here.

I was involved in Co-moderating the panel on meanings of democracy on a global scale with my friend & colleague Niklas Kossow. Our podium debate was complemented by Xiabo Lu (Columbia University) and Nora Lafi (center for the modern orient) and Sina Birkholz (Free University Berlin).

The discussion touched upon topics such as the universality of democracy as a normative order and source of legitimacy, justice, economic development, civil society and media pluralism.

The interesting debate on the podium was focused on perspectives from the Arab World and China. Here you can find the link to the audio file of the discussion (last link).

Besides the interesting podium debate I was also involved in organization a workshop on understandings of democracy in the Arab World with my colleague Laura Führer from the Free University Berlin and Thomas Claes from the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation. In the workshop we covered the contestation during the Arab Uprisings and the demands of the protesters such as freedom, justice, an end to corruption and democracy. We discussed varieties of understandings of democracy across the Arab World focusing on Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. We highlighted the differences between these cases and came to the conclusion that the understandings of democracy –even within the seemingly homogeneous bloc of the Arab World, or even within the single countries– are very diverging. In short, there is no such thing as a common Arab understanding of democracy.

All in all the conference was very interesting and enabled a fruitful exchange between established and young academics, journalists and the interested public in Berlin. Overall despite the references to democracy by all actors across all regions the diversity of understandings and meanings of democracy was the central outcome of the conference.

I herewith also want to thank the organizers and my collegues for their efforts and participation in planning and contributing to the success of the event.
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podium on meanings of democracy on a global scale

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from the workshop on understandings of democracy in the Arab World

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case study presentation on Morocco

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case study presentation on Tunisia by Thomas Claes

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case study presentation on Egypt by Laura Führer
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Adopt a Revolution

1/11/2014

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Dear friends and followers,

a couple of weeks ago I started helping out an initiative called "adopt a revolution". They are raising money and directly support local communities trying to improve the situation for the people in Syria.

Although my main task there is translating reports and articles and writing blog posts the work is very fulfilling for me, because it gives me some kind of feeling that I am not totally powerless in facing the Syrian civil war that my own family is suffering from.

To give you an idea what the raised money goes into we are cooperating with local comitees in Syria that have taken on many tasks that were prior to the war fulfilled by local administration.  For example we are supporting local commitees to restore the functionality of damaged hospitals and schools.

To get an idea of te projects that are supported you can visit their blog too.

I have felt heplpless and powerless in face of the disastrous and ongoing crisis in Syria but through the work with adopt a revolution I feel that at least I can contribute to imüroving the situation for some people in Syria and hopefully help to rebuild the intl pressure through their advocacy work. in this the main aim of adopt a revolution is to focus doners and policy makers on supporting the civilians and improving their daily lives in face of the ongoing conflict.

I think adopt a revoultion is an organization worth supporting. Everyone can contribute something. So go to there website and if you care about what happens to the people in Syria and you feel that the projects supported by adopt a revolution are worth it support us and support a free Syria!


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    Ilyas Saliba

    is a researcher and PhD student in political science, freelance journalist and photographer interested in Democracy, Transition, Authoritarianism and Security especially in the MIddle East and North Africa.

    From time to time I will publish links, comments and thoughts relating to my research, events, current political issues and the life as a PhD student on this Blog.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

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