Competition for control of the state and the transitional justice agenda among Tunisian civil society organisations

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how Tunisian CSOs positioned themselves vis-à-vis the State and each other on transitional justice (TJ) since 2011. CSOs are divided over religion, their status under Ben Ali, TJ preferences, geographical location, and their access to and willingness to engage international experts and donors. In a country with a strong State, rather than ‘letting the state off the hook’, CSOs engage in creative protagonism to pressure the State to deliver on justice and compete over control of the State to achieve their policy goals. Groups that represent secular, youth perspectives outside of Tunis, in particular, feel excluded. Nonetheless, having failed to coopt the State, most CSOs continue to desire government-led action on TJ. Theoretically, the article calls for amore thoughtful dissection of the CSO category and a questioning of the divide between CSOs and the State that existing research often at least implicitly assumes to exist.