This research examines the historical evolution of Tunisia's Constitutional Democratic Rally Party (RCD) from its beginnings in 1987, when President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali took power, until his ousting in 2011 when the party was outlawed. I argue that the RCD evolved from a political force with wide popular support during a short democratic era (1987–89) into a repressive interest group in the 1990s, when the regime cracked down on political dissidents and popular freedoms while rewarding party members with lucrative benefits. In the 2000s the RCD adopted a quasi-mafiosi structure that profited the Ben Ali family, which increasingly monopolized economic and political power. This transformation from a dominant-party state into a near dynasty marginalized many RCD members and its wider networks, ultimately leading to Ben Ali's ousting in 2011.