Resisting autocratization? Civil society’s response to the autocratic turn in Tunisia

The contemporary rise of autocratization calls for increased attention to the role of civil society in resisting authoritarianism. While the literature on autocratization is growing, there are fewer analyses of the dynamics of civil society resistance. The purpose of the article is to address this knowledge gap through a contextual case study of civil society responses to autocratization in Tunisia. Through a relational analysis of autocratization and resistance, the authors show that Tunisia’s autocratization process was met with resistance but not in the form of a broad-based and forceful resistance movement. The response can instead be characterized as being relatively slow, soft, and fragmented. This finding may be explained with reference to civil society fragmentation and state co-optation, resentments against the democratic system and political elite that emerged from the Arab Spring, and the incremental but swift changes that characterized the autocratization process. The authors conclude that the Tunisian case highlights the need for analytical attention to the question of civil society responses to autocratization but challenges simplistic assumptions about politically unified and effective resistance movements. This in turn calls for further contextual, comparative, and conceptual research on the varieties of resistance against autocratization in different political and societal contexts.