ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the weak institutionalisation of the party system in Tunisia and its impact on the quality of democracy by demonstrating that the crisis of representation is due to the inability of political parties to shape preferences and translate them into government policy. This analysis of the functioning of Tunisian political parties demonstrates that: a) the overestimation of the identity cleavage during electoral campaigns is followed by a policy of consensus that discredits the parties; b) the autonomy of the Tunisian political parties increases the disconnection with citizens. All this is due to the weak social anchoring and the elitism of the historical proto-parties, the growing professionalisation of the leaders of Ennahda, which have led the movement to erase to a certain extent its identity specificities and the proliferation of personalistic political formations after 2011.
