Civil society organizations in Tunisia

By: V-Dem Staff
Apr 08, 2015


The graph below presents an indicator capturing the involvement of people in civil society organizations (CSOs) in Tunisia, compared to the average scores for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.  A low score on this indicator suggests that most CSOs are state-sponsored and participation is not purely voluntary, and a higher score corresponds to the  more democratic ideal of a citizenry engaged in voluntary participation in CSOs. As evident in the graph below, the general score for MENA is on the rise over the last five years, starting from very low levels throughout the whole 20th century. However, the scores rise to near  “2” for 2013 and 2014 indicate popular involvement is growing but is still not not widespread.  Tunisia, a country seen by many as  the only remaining democractic success of the Arab spring, demonstrates somewhat higher levels than the regional mean, although a small drop can be noted in the last year.