ABSTRACT
Since the 16th century, the land tenure system in Tunisia has been progressively centralised by state bureaucracies at the expense of local communities. However, this hegemony of the state in regulating the access to forestland resources was significantly affected by the Tunisian revolution of 2011 that occurred in the context of the ‘Arab Spring’. Considering this political change, the aim of this chapter is to scrutinise the dynamics of power between state bureaucracies and non-state actors in the access and control of forestlands in Northwest Tunisia. From a methodological perspective, the chapter presents an in-depth empirical analysis of two decades (2000–2019) of the politics of forestland access in rural Tunisia. Particular attention is paid to ruptures and continuities induced by the revolution of 2011. The results show that one of the major effects of the revolution in rural Tunisia was the collapse of state authority in the governance of forestland resources. The chapter also reveals that the use of coercion was the main power element employed by state bureaucracies before the revolution. The use of this coercion, without combining it with other power elements such as incentives, has become inefficient after the revolution. From a theoretical angle, this chapter brings an important contribution to actor-centred power theory.
