ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the case of Tunisia, one of the region's most successful liberalizers. Although the country abandoned socialism and began a gradual process of reform as early as 1969, the real transformation has only taken place since the coming to power of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in 1987. The chapter also examines the way in which the regime came to adopt the economic reform strategy, and the political tactics which it used to reshape the structures of state and society to accommodate those reforms. It addresses the question of the extent to which the political manoeuvrings of the Tunisian regime can be credited with achieving the relative success of the economic reforms. The political strategies of Zine elAbidine Ben Ali find a familiar resonance elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa region, even where economic liberalization packages have neither advanced as far nor achieved as much.
