This paper examines the struggle between local and national actors in Tunisia’s transition following 2011. One of the first measures taken by the Minister of Interior after Ben Ali’s flight established guidelines along which new ‘special delegations’ were created, replacing the country’s previous municipal councils. The directive came from above, but the special delegations were the result of local level negotiations and reflected local power structures. In the years that followed, some of the special delegations remained in place, yet others were changed despite the postponement of elections. Were these changes a result of bottom-up or top-down initiatives? Which actors, political, civil or administrative, played a role in the changes? What issues triggered them? This paper examines case studies of four municipalities, Hammamet, Gafsa, Zarzis, and Nefta, focusing on changes from October 2011-September 2013, a time in which they were under pressure from the Troika for change. It relies on elite and key-informant interviews with municipal council members, civil society actors, scholars, journalists and public administration employees conducted in 2012 and 2014, as well as a review of documents, to examine the pressures for change, the nature of the local stakeholders, and the outcome of the struggle over municipal control. The results of this paper raise important questions regarding the role of the local level in transitions. The literature on democratic transitions deals primarily at the national political level, (Linz & Stepan 1996; Przeworski 1986), yet this study, as well as literature from Latin American, Asian and post-Soviet transitions, indicates that the local and national level are an important part of the struggle during political transitions (Gonzalez 2013; Gary 2011; Gel’man 2003; Smith 1998).