E-Books →Historical Dictionary of Tunisia

Free Download Kenneth J. Perkins, "Historical Dictionary of Tunisia"
English | 2016 | ISBN: 1442273178 | PDF | pages: 437 | 2.4 mb
The demographically modest, but strategically significant, country of Tunisia has experienced profound and revolutionary change in the almost two decades since the publication of the previous edition of this volume (1997). Most dramatically, a populist uprising in 2011 ousted the entrenched dictatorship whose two heads had successively presided over the country since independence from France in 1956. As Tunisians celebrated this achievement, they inspired similar movements elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, giving rise to an "Arab Spring" that held out hope for the introduction of transformational innovations in democratic concepts and institutions across the region. Sadly, however, powerful forces of the status quo thwarted these efforts in country after country. But in Tunisia itself, a more hopeful scenario unfolded. In the fall of 2011, elections to a constituent assembly that international observers characterized as free and fair, gave the major Islamic party a plurality of the votes and set Tunisia on a course of participatory democracy.