History of Modern Tunisia - The Republic of Habib Bourguiba

The Republic of Habib Bourguiba

The Neo Destour regime sought to run a strictly structured regime with efficient and equitable state operations, but not with democratic-style politics. In effect, Bourguiba commenced to dominate the country for the next 31 years. He governed with programs yielding stability and economic progress, repressing Islamic fundamentalism, and establishing rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation. The political culture would be secular, populist, and imbued with a kind of French rationalist vision of the state that was buoyant, touched with élan, even Napoleonic in spirit. Bourguiba then saw an idiosyncratic, eclectic future combining tradition and innovation, Islam with a liberal prosperity. Habib Bourguiba has been compared to Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) of Turkey, as a unique national modernizing leader. Yet, what may be called an inclination to arbitrary methods when making government decisions, and to a specie of personality cult, detracted from Bourguiba's insight and substantial achievements.

"Bourguibism" was also resolutely nonmilitarist, arguing that Tunisia could never be a credible military power and that the building of a large military establishment would only consume scarce investment resources and perhaps thrust Tunisia into the cycles of military intervention in politics that had plagued the rest of the Middle East. In the name of economic development, Bourguiba nationalized various religious land holdings and dismantled several religious institutions. While surely a secularist, he did not appear anti-religious.

Bourguiba's great asset was that "Tunisia possessed a mature nationalist organization, the Neo Destour Party, which on independence day held the nation's confidence in hand." It had made its case to the city workers in the modern economy and to country folk in the traditional economy; it had excellent leaders who commanded respect and who generally developed reasonable government programs.

One serious rival to Habib Bourguiba was Salah Ben Youssef. Exiled in Cairo during the early 1950s he had absorbed the pan-Arab nationalism associated with the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul Nasser. Yet as a result of his strong opposition to the Neo Destour leadership during their negotiations with France for autonomy prior to independence, Ben Youssef was removed from his position as secretary-general and expelled from the party. Nonetheless he rallied disaffected union members, students, and others, enough to put 20,000 youssefists into the street during the next congress of the Neo Destour party. Eventually he left Tunisia for Cairo. This was the end of any meaningful opposition to Bourguiba. In 1963, the Neo-Destour Party was proclaimed to be the only legally permitted party, though for all intents and purposes Tunisia had been a one-party state since independence.

Socialism was not initially a major part of the Neo Destour project, but the government had alays held and implemented redistributive policies. A large public works program was launched in 1961. Nonetheless in 1964, Tunisia entered a short lived socialist era. The Neo Destour party became the Socialist Destour (Parti Socialiste Dusturien or PSD), and the new minister of planning, Ahmed Ben Salah, formulated a state-led plan for agricultural cooperatives and public-sector industrialization. The socialist experiment raised considerable opposition within Bourguiba's old coalition. Ahmed Ben Salah was eventually dismissed in 1970, and many socialized operations (e.g., the farm cooperatives) were returned to private ownership in the early 1970s. In 1978, a general strike was repressed by the government with its forces killing dozens; union leaders were jailed.

After independence, Tunsian economic policy had been primarily to promote light industry and tourism, and develop its phosphate deposits. The major sector remained agriculture with small farms prevailing, but these did not produce well. In the early 1960s the economy slowed down, but the socialist program did not prove to be the cure. In the 1970s the economy of Tunisia expanded at a very agreeable rate. Oil was discovered, and tourism continued. Foreign corporate investment increased. For example, Renault opened an auto manufacturing plant. City and countryside populations drew roughly equal in number. Yet agricultural problems and urban unemployment led to increased migration to Europe for work.

In 1981 the government allowed a few "officially sanctioned" parties to run for office. But the economy faltered. Austerity imposed by the I.M.F. caused increases in the price of bread; protest riots were widespread during 1983. The Islamic Tendency Movement (MTI) of Rashid al-Ghannushi came to the fore. Thousands were jailed, especially Islamists; critical newspapers were closed, disruptive trade unions disbanded. Security was headed by General Ben Ali. An ailing Bourguiba threatened severe repression.

Tunisia continued its close ties to the West, both economic and political. From 1979 to 1991 the Arab League was located in Tunis. The P.L.O. was also based in Tunis from 1982 to 1994. On 1 October 1985, in Operation Wooden Leg, Israeli Air Force F-15s bombed the PLO's Tunis headquarters, killing more than 60 people.

On the debit side, political democracy in the Western sense was more or less nonexistent. Even before Tunisia became a one-party state, it adopted a constitution vesting almost dictatorial powers in the presidency. Civil liberties were subject to "the limits prescribed by law," per the constitution. The media were expected to practice self-censorship, and opponents were frequently imprisoned. Bourguiba became the focus of a modest personality cult in which he was extolled as the "Supreme Warrior" of the nation. In 1975, Bourguiba was proclaimed president for life, though his health was increasingly poor. Although he was prevailed upon to legalize opposition parties in 1981, Tunisia remained for all intents and purposes a one-party state. The Destourian Socialist Party, in alliance with the trade unions, swept all of the seats in parliament. The opposition was disgusted; it boycotted the next elections, in 1986.