ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Tunisia. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Tunisia. Tunisians cannot change their government democratically. The ruling Consitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) and its predecessor parties have controlled the political system since independence. Escalating government suppression of dissent in 2001 met with unprecendented defiance from Tunisian rights groups and opposition politicians. As President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's ruling RCD prepared to change the constitution to allow him to seek a fourth term, rights activists called for democratic reform and an end to one-party rule. General equality for women has advanced more in Tunisia than elsewhere in the Arab world.
