ABSTRACT
The culture at the UGTT is such that when the leadership wavers on a decision and pressure mounts from the base, the leaders end up falling into line-that is what the public fails to understand. Some reduce the organization's initiatives to the work of individuals within the organization. The political parties that decided to join the government, such as the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Ettajdid, viewed the situation less as a revolution than a politically rudderless uprising, and thus backed institutional continuity and avoided overly direct opposition to the former regime in order to prevent chaos. The government's lack of democratic legitimacy resulted in the UGTT taking center stage in discussions to establish broad-based mechanisms for managing the transition. Like all political and social actors in Tunisia, the UGTT suddenly found itself facing the challenges of a tense, unstable political climate.
