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Political Socialization in Transitional Tunisia: Assessing Differences between Post-2011 Youth Generations
Abstract
Political socialization in Tunisia over the past decade has been radically transformed by the democratic transition. Referring to the processes by which individuals solidify their political beliefs, values, and behaviors, political socialization occurs most importantly during youth and the entry into adulthood and is often based on microlevel interactions and a degree of passive reception. In transitions out of authoritarianism, however, political socialization into democracy benefits not from intergenerational transmission but rather other dynamics related to political context and transformed modes of participation. In Tunisia, 10 years since the revolution and undergoing fragile democratic transition, what factors contribute to political socialization into democracy? And what is the nature of democratic socialization among youth? Taking voting patterns as indicators, the low rates of youth voter turnout are often cited as evidence of faltering democratic consolidation. However, closer inspection of voting breakdown during the 2019 presidential election indicates the emergence of two distinct youth political cohorts: Generation Y, the cohort of 2011 activists, who participated in higher percentages and with more diverse candidate preferences, and Generation Z, the post-Ben Ali cohort, who voted massively for non-traditional candidate Kaïs Saied. These patterns indicate differences in political preferences and perhaps even values at the cohort level. Assessing the process of political socialization among these two cohorts of Tunisian youth can shed important light on these differences in political behaviors. Drawing on evidence gathered in early 2021 through 12 focus groups discussions and semi-structured interviews with over 120 youth in six municipalities in Tunisia, and using a generation approach that considers how shared location in a historical-social reality influences collective interpretations and practices, the paper demonstrates that two different processes of political socialization are taking place. For Generation Y, political socialization is marked by processes of “learning-by doing” through participation in civil society and social movements that themselves have experimented with democratic governance and participatory politics. By contrast, Generation Z has neither been socialized through typical socializing agents nor through participation in a defining historical-social event. Rather, political socialization of Tunisia’s youngest adults reflects the impact of deep economic malaise on the production of various forms of exclusion and collectively undermined faith in the project of democracy. In so doing, the paper contributes to theories of political socialization and the process of democratic learning in post-authoritarian contexts, and provides one of the first empirical studies of these processes in the Middle East region.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Tunisia
Sub Area
Democratization