Economic Development and Corruption in the Post-Revolution Tunisia: Back to the Cycle of Ibn Khaldun

Abstract

Since 14th January 2011, Tunisians managed to end the totalitarian regime settled 23 years ago by the General Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Tunisia entered a new democratic era, and started building its economy. But despite of the new social and economic model based on “clean society”, corruption is still affecting the society and refraining the economic development of the country. The research tries to reexamine the economic development and corruption in the post-revolution Tunisia at the light of the political cycle proposed by the historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 in the Moqaddima. The theory of Ibn Khaldun, based on the observation of rises and falls of numerous dynasties, starts with the arrival to power of an individual, acting in the name of people, claiming more justice and democracy. In the end of the Ibn Khakdoun cycle, the dynasty is affected by corruption and breaks down, and the rupture of the equilibrium between the reigning dynasty and the rising protesting tribes lead to the emergence of a new king. Did the new Tunisian economic model follow the political cycle observed by Ibn Khaldun? To what extent things got worse? Can we expect a new economic cycle in the post-revolution Tunisia? These are some of the questions to which I will try to find answers in the study. The research is organized into two sections. The first one reminds briefly the circumstances of the Jasmine revolution and the building of a new economy. The second examines the political cycle of Ibn Khaldun, showing to what extent it effectively applies to corruption in the Tunisian case.

Keywords

• Ibn Khaldun
• Revolution
• Tunisia
• Cycle