| Work Detail |
The Tunisian state worked from the first years of independence in connection with the reform movement for the second half of the nineteenth century and the national movement
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, a new social contract has been built that brings together all Tunisians and forms the common framework for their dreams and hopes.
The process of building this social contract was based on four main axes. The first axis is the modernization of the state and exit from the outmoded institutions of the old state, building and focusing new institutions governing new principles brought by political modernity such as separation of powers, respect for the independence of the judiciary and the concentration of a democratically elected legislative authority and executive authority for a presidential system directly elected by the people alongside many institutions The other.
The second pillar of this new social contract concerns the economic side, as the independence state worked to come out and break with the colonial economic pattern and build an independent development pattern that tends towards meeting the needs of citizens. Several new economic sectors, such as the industrial sector.
The third pillar of the social contract for the post-independence state concerns the social aspect, as the state worked on a new view of solidarity between social groups, which is broken with traditional frameworks based on tribal, regional, and tribal relations and focuses on modern institutions to be the state the only guarantor of synergy and solidarity between social groups and supportive of poor and marginalized groups. The huge investments were in the health and education sectors and opened them to all social groups. The state has also built central social institutions that will form the basis of this social contract, such as social security, retirement, and sickness insurance, etc.
As for the fourth pillar, it concerns individual liberties, and the independence state focused on supporting these freedoms, especially women, to liberate them from the prevailing patriarchal system in Arab and Islamic societies and to enjoy many basic rights and freedoms.
These pillars of state modernization, building an independent economy, new institutions of social solidarity and the development of freedoms formed the basis of the social contract built by the independence state. This social contract and the political project of the independence state contributed to developing a special political experience in the Arab and Islamic environment that enabled our country to emerge from the archaic and legacy political system From centuries of marginalization, underdevelopment, eastern despotism, and entering into the cosmic project of modernity, freedoms and modernity.
This vision succeeded in building a new experiment that supported the foundations of the independence state and contributed to developing its legitimacy and strengthening it. On the political level, our country succeeded in building modern institutions and restoring the legitimate hegemony of the state on new foundations characterized by rationality, effectiveness and organization.
As for the economic level, our country has succeeded in carving a distinct development pattern based on a balance between the public sector and the private sector on the one hand and the internal market and the external market. Sectoral policies, in particular industrial and agricultural policies that contributed to the diversification of the economy have played a role in developing our self-sufficiency and reducing their dependency. Out.
These successes were not limited to the political level and the economic level, but also included the social level through the development of education, legalization of compulsory development and the development of the health sector, in particular the generalization of basic health centers in addition to the major health institutions in the big cities. This phase also defined the building and emergence of major social funds among social groups. And generations.
This stage also witnessed an important development in the field of individual freedoms, especially in the field of women, where it managed to obtain many rights to become a matter of equality in the priorities of the project and the program of the independence state, but despite these successes, the project of the social contract for the independence state will witness some slack since the end of the sixties and then To enter into multiple crises, which will herald its end and the need to build a new social contract.
The crisis of the social contract for the independence state The
crises of the social contract started since the beginning of the sixties where the attempted coup against President Bourguiba in 1962 will be a turning point in the modern political system. To more rigid and closed positions, with all opposition parties, including the Communist Party, locked out and all independent newspapers closed.
The political system in our country will move to a new period characterized by one-party dominance and absolute control over the political field.
The path of stifling liberties will continue in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of left-wing groups such as the Afak movement and the Tunisian worker that the regime will face with much arrogance and intensity.
These political crises and the emergence of the left-wing opposition from the youth will lead to the emergence of sharp differences in the core of power between the hard wing and the open wing, which will emerge publicly at the ruling party conference in 1971 in the city of Monastir.
These differences will lead to the emergence of democratic opposition and civic organizations, such as the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights.
With the regime retreating from the democratic issue and freedoms since the beginning of the sixties, modernity will lose its democratic side to gradually transform into an authoritarian modernization project. Our country started from the eighties, the opening of the political system and the emergence of some opposition parties and civil society organizations, as well as some independent newspapers and magazines.
However, the authority will return to tightening its grip again on public space and restricting freedoms since the end of the nineties, so that the regime will move to more authoritarian and authoritarian sites.
The political crisis and the decline in the margin of democracy and freedoms will be one of the most important manifestations of the social contract for the independence state. However, the manifestations of this crisis will not be limited to the political field, but will extend to the economic side. Opening up to the external market and the private sector. The new development pattern will find a balance between the private and public sectors, the internal market, and the external market.
However, this development pattern will know the beginnings of its involvement and decline with the crisis of exporting industries, which depend on the cheap labor force. From that moment on, the process of searching for a new developmental pattern and out of this traditional pattern began to continue to this day.
The debt crisis of the mid-1980s and the resort to the International Monetary Fund to adopt an amendment program will constitute one of the most prominent manifestations of the development pattern crisis. Since that day, we have made nothing but amendments to this development system, and we have not succeeded to this day in building a new experiment or development project.
As for the third aspect of the crisis in the social contract in our country, it concerns the social and the increase in strikes and social protests, which will lead to a general strike on January 26, 1978 and the fierce attack that the regime will launch against union leaders, led by the Secretary-General at the time, Mr. Habib Ashour, and in my opinion the causes of this crisis and attack on the union It returns to two important issues. The first is political and returns to the will of the union, especially the new generation of left-wing trade unionists, to move away from the dominance of the ruling party and defend the independence of the trade union movement from power.
The increasing social strikes, movements, struggles and crisis with the Tunisian General Labor Union have contributed to breaking into one of the basic components of the social contract for the independence state, which is the social aspect.
The crisis of the social contract will not be confined to the political, economic and social aspects, but will also include a new aspect, which is the rise of the demands related to identity and the refusal to distance the modernist project of the state of independence from the Arab and Islamic cultural heritage and its emergence from the reality of popular groups. Arab and Islamic immersion in it to invent new solutions to the civil state crisis.
Islam movements will carry this new opposition to the modern state and will consider that the only solution to these crises passes back to the Quran and to the project of the caliphate state that will enable us to restore our golden age.
Hence, the opposition to the state of independence and its social contract will be oppositions. The civil and democratic opposition, which calls for opening a new stage in the project of political modernity through the imposition of freedoms, democracy and severance with the state of tyranny. Succession .
The political system in our country will fail in the midst of these crises and oppositions and will lose the ability to carry out the necessary reforms from within in order to save and reform it. The development of corruption and cronyism will contribute to the legitimacy of the system and the disappearance of its ability to change and reform.
The crisis of the social contract and the closure and calcification of the regime will open the stage of successive uprisings that will turn into the revolution of January 14, 2011.
The revolution and the new historical horizon
The revolution has opened a new historical stage in our political experience and opened the way for out of successive crises the social contract and its collapse. Perhaps one of the most important major results of this revolution is the adoption of the new constitution in the year 2014 after a phase of disputes and conflicts between the various political parties and the most important political families. In my opinion, the importance of the new constitution lies in putting it in a consensual way. All Tunisians gathered the legislative and constitutional framework that opens the way for the introduction of major transformations in the social contract that has escaped years ago. In this field, I can refer to five levels. S major change and development and reform.
The first level concerns the political aspect, as the constitution stipulates the end of the partys dominance and the beginning of a real democratic transformation that respects freedoms and makes pluralism and separation of power and respect for human rights the basic principles and pillars of the political aspect of the new social contract. While this path witnessed some setbacks and difficulties, the new constitutional framework opened a new stage In our political experience, of course, with the era of tyranny, modernization of a strong and authoritarian state, and entering into the democratic era through its large gate.
The second and fundamental level achieved by the 2014 constitution concerns reconciliation between the universal principles of modernity carried by modernist political forces that have dominated the political field in our country since the middle of the nineteenth century and the depth and Arab and Islamic momentum that has been defended by the forces of political Islam and some national forces since the seventies of the last century. This relationship between the principles of modernity and the Arab and Islamic heritage reached a stage of collision and rejection that was behind the political tragedies and tyranny that our country knew before the revolution. Large between equation numbers which seemed inapplicable.
However, the new constitution succeeded after many conflicts, disputes, and tension that prevailed in the debate in the Constituent Assembly stage in resolving this dispute and finding a new consensus and reconciliation The universal principles of freedom and pluralism and their involvement in the depth and momentum of our experience and our Arab and Islamic environment. The devastating about identity and wide scope for achieving this historic reconciliation between the principles of universal modernity, which form the basis of our openness to world civilization since the second half of the nineteenth century and the Arab and Islamic cultural heritage that we have lived in from the beginnings.
The third level opened by the 2014 constitution concerns the economic aspect of the social contract. While he did not present a new economic program or proposals for a new development pattern, he stressed some basic principles that will form the general framework for rebuilding a new development project. The new constitution has emphasized fundamental issues in this field such as regional balance, climate protection, and the protection of national wealth. These principles and others give the framework The year to build a new development vision.
However, the principles have not yet been translated into a new developmental pattern, so that our country will continue to ruminate with a worn out and worsening pattern.
The fourth and important level in the field of reconstructing the social contract is related to the social field. The new constitution has affirmed a set of important basic principles such as fighting poverty, social inclusion and reducing marginalization. However, despite the approval of these important principles, the social situation has remained deteriorating so that our country will experience the greatest social crisis in Its recent history. Unemployment is still at high levels, especially the unemployment of martyrs. Likewise, major social sectors such as education and health know a great state of deterioration and neglect. As for social funds, they live in a major financial crisis.
The fifth level concerns public freedoms, which formed one of the pillars of the Tunisian political project and its specificity.
We have indicated that this issue was behind the bold decisions taken by the state of independence with regard to equality between women and men, which allowed a great way out of patriarchal society and severing with male domination.
However, this aspect witnessed a lot of slackness with the escalation of tyranny and authoritarianism. The 2014 constitution came to reaffirm the principles of equality and thus open up a new horizon to support individual freedoms.
In front of the crisis of the social contract inherited from the independence state, the 2014 constitution came to define a set of principles and an unified and unified framework to rebuild the Tunisian political experience and formulate a new social contract. He emphasized our priorities.
In the necessity of rebuilding the social contract,
our country has been living for years with a deep and multifaceted crisis that meets. In this crisis, the political aspects and the difficulties of democratic and economic transformation with the collapse of the pattern of production inherited from the mid-seventies and the suffocating social with high unemployment, marginalization, poverty and inequality.
Most governments have tried from the revolution to the present day to try to find answers to political, economic and social challenges. However, the results were not at the level of expectations to keep the revolution’s benefits from work, freedom and national dignity out of reach. This deficiency was behind the state of frustration and lack of hope that prevails in our country. And dominate the public space.
The reasons for this deficit are due to many factors, perhaps the most important of which is the absence of the comprehensive vision and the project that unites and unites the Tunisians. Most governments have tried to deal with the various and multiple aspects of crises in a unilateral way without placing them in an inclusive framework and a unified vision. Most of these governments dealt with the economic crisis without looking at the issues The other. Work was also done to overcome the political crisis and highlight the challenges of the democratic transition path without taking other issues into consideration. The same applies to the social crisis.
So this detailed methodology contributed to the deepening of crises, the spread of frustration and the absence of hope.
The current situation requires breaking with this methodology and the necessity of defining a new perception where it will be the starting point and beginning of renewing the social contract and building a new democratic and social contract on the ruins of the outdated contract inherited from the independence state.
In my opinion, building this project will have important and positive results, perhaps the most important of which is to unite the Tunisians around a vision and an inclusive project that will give them confidence in continuing the revolutionary path that was opened in 2011 and give a new horizon to our historical political experience.
Six major transformations of the new social contract
We have indicated on many occasions that leaving the outdated social contract and entering strongly into the stage of building the social contract passes through six major transformations.
• The first transformation matters to the political side and passes through the continuation and consolidation of the democratic transformation path. This path passes through the consolidation of the principles of democracy, freedom and pluralism and making them the basis of the political system and the reference to political practice. This transformation also passes by completing the building of constitutional institutions and finding the necessary political consensus to complete this path. Likewise, the success of this transformation also requires rebuilding the state’s authority and its ability to apply the law and affirm its respect.
• The second shift concerns the social aspect, and here we must get out of the social crisis and put the necessary policies in order to advance employment and re-create the social sectors such as health and education. Also, this field also requires the renewal of mechanisms and institutions of social solidarity between social groups and generations. The severity of the social crisis and the challenges that Our country is living in this field that requires new solutions and approaches that are broken with old policies and trying to devise new answers and policies that are capable of restoring hope and building confidence in the future. The third shift concerns the economic side and is based on a combination of two important aspects The first aspect concerns getting out from the breaking of the major economic balances and stabilizing the total balances. As for the second aspect of this transformation, they get out of the rash and development pattern inherited from the mid-seventies and building a new pattern based on industries and smart economic activities or industry 5.0.
• The fourth transformation concerns technology or digital transformation, as our country has witnessed a significant decline compared to many developing countries, especially in Africa, which entered the technological revolution from its door.
The transformation requires accelerating the development of a clearly defined strategy to bridge the technological divide and enter the digital world.
• The fifth transformation matters of energy and the need to enter quickly into the world of clean energy. This shift has positive repercussions not only on the climate side, but also on the major macro balances of our economy as it will reduce our needs for oil and other energy sources.
• As for the sixth and final transformation in them, the infrastructure, which has witnessed a significant decline in recent years, which negatively affected the cost-effectiveness of our economy, the efficiency of our economic institutions and its competitive advantages in the path of globalization.
To reduce this gap, we must prepare a major investment program in this field that is not limited to classic infrastructure, but also extends to new areas such as the digital field and smart technologies.
Achieving these major transformations will enable our country to build a new social contract that cuts with the rash contract of the independence state and seeks to open democratic and social horizons for our historical political experience. Distinguish it and its height. |
