Ben Ali's Tunisia: Power and Contention in an Authoritarian Regime

Cover
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
A Note on Transliteration
`Who's Who?' in Ben Ali's Regime
Introduction
1 The Dictator's Party
	The puzzle
	Key arguments and theory
	Methodological considerations
	Outline of chapters
2 A Man amongst Others . . . a Man above All
	The coup
	Strategies of legitimation
	Thwarting internal resistance
	The remaking of the ruling party
	The old guard’s decline
	Co-opting the opposition
	Be with us, oragainst us
	Establishing executive control
	The man above all
	Creeping internal dissent
3 Fortifying Carthage
	Stoking fear, evoking chaos
	Expanding the palace
	The rise of the lumpen activist
	A grid of spies
	Silencing the opposition
	The tiger of the Mediterranean
	All the President’s ‘technocrats’
	Limited internal opposition
4 All in the Family
	A looming succession 
crisis
	High stakes, many clans
	The Trabelsis
	The party and the family
	Elite restructuring
	The rise of family associates
	Forms of resistance
	Usurping the party leadership
	The congress of succession
5 The Rebellion
	A Destourian revolt?
	Sidi Bouzid’s ‘traitors’
	Sidelined loyalists
	The old guard’s revenge
	Eroding countermobilization
	Where are the Trabelsis?
	Ben Ali’s ousting
	The dissolution of the RCD
6 Conclusion
	Correctivism and the personalization of power
	New normative ideas, authoritarian regeneration, and decay
	Internecine contention and regime collapse
	Implications for future research
Selected Bibliography
Index