Islamist Ideals and Governing Realities: Nahda’s Project and the Constraint of Adaptation in Post-revolution Tunisia
Abstract
[...] For Nahda, the process from building a party from an exiled leadership and a decimated membership to leading a government was fraught with dilemmas that may be suggested by several questions. To begin with, what was Nahda's political project when it engaged into open post-authoritarian politics? How was the project conceived ideologically and how was it presented discursively? Where did Nahda stand vis-à-vis its rivals, secularist or salafist, within the context of democratic contestation and pluralist politics? How far was Nahda in government able to meet the popular expectations of a highly mobilized society? In subsequent sections, this chapter engages these questions by focusing on several related matters in turn. [...]