A Guide to Tunisia's Political Transition

Since January 14, 2011, Tunisia has embarked on an ambitious course of political reform and democratic transition.  An interim National Unity Government (NUG) has been appointed in the wake of the old regime to handle day-to-day affairs, and elections are scheduled for October 23 to elect a National Constituent Assembly, which will rewrite the constitution.  In addition to the NUG, a host of independent committees have been appointed to develop an administrative structure for the transition period, each charged with different and sometimes redundant tasks.  Though there is currently no law defining what a political party is or regulating their activities, parties are proliferating and beginning to campaign for support; most will field candidates to serve as delegates in the National Constituent Assembly.

Amidst all the commotion that has come from numerous and often un-coordinated attempts to develop liberal democratic processes in a recently eviscerated autocracy, it can be difficult at times to know exactly who is in charge.  For example, the Ministry of Interior, which has been led by three different individuals in the past five months and is responsible for licensing political parties, often does not seem to know just how many political parties it actually has cleared to operate legally (estimates range from 80 to 100 unique groups, including several that use the same name).

Here, in as simple a way as I can present it, is a diagram of the current government and various other authorities responsible for managing a democratic transition in Tunisia.  I have not included the Parliament because they have ceded all legal authority to the President, and I have not included regional and local government because the level of organization varies so much among the provinces.  Each of the three bodies described below are administratively independent and held together by little more than mutual consensus.  Without further ado, here is Tunisia's current and soon-to-be political hierarchy: