Participatory Development and Liberal Reforms in Tunisia: The Gradual Incorporation of Some Economic Networks

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, political economists have devoted a great deal of attention to the potential impact of liberal and fiscal reforms on the economic structures and social and political systems of Mediterranean Non-Member Countries (MNCs), while focusing, among other things, on the gradual exposure of domestic firms to international competition, the dismantling of trade barriers, and the consequential loss of fiscal revenue. The need for enhanced credibility and financial support from foreign donors are often mentioned to explain the adherence of some MNCs to the drastic measures advocated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Union (EU). However, scant attention has been given to the multifarious ways in which liberal and fiscal reforms have been understood—if not reinterpreted—by some Middle Eastern governments. This chapter deals with the ways in which the Tunisian government has been successful in reinterpreting the scope of its liberal economic reforms, and with the dynamics that have gradually shaped the relationships between the government and some leading entrepreneurs of the Tunisian manufacturing industry since the early 1990s, while redefining the patterns of participatory development in Tunisia.