Hauptinhalt

"Islamists as part of governmental elites in the Maghreb: The Tunisian example"

Julius DIHSTELHOFF

In the context of what is known as the Arab Spring, the transformation of the governmental elites in the Maghreb has remained incomplete. This applies to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, although they differ widely in their political framework.

An important, but often unexplained, common feature of the three countries is that at different times in their national history, the respective governmental elite was shaped by rapprochements of Islamists and established (mostly secular nationalist) forces. These have different, partly overlapping, forms of appearance, such as authoritarian political co-optation, formal division of power and informal governance.

The contemporary Tunisian case shows that the rapprochement between Islamists and the established secular modernization elite has led to an "elite compromise" (Itifaq al nukhba), which can be understood both as a specific (and continuing) format of power-sharing and as an expression of informal governance. The overall objective is to shed some light on the internal coherence of Tunisia's elite compromise.