On Tunisia Since Independence

Once more, I appreciated this a bit better the second time through. Moore argues that there are two “ideal types” for modernizing mass party regimes: “neo-Leninist” with follows political orthodoxy with revolutionary rhetoric, and “permissive” which is less concerned with political ideology and more interested in the results of development (therefore rewarding merit). To Moore, Tunisia in 1965 better fit the “permissive” category, which is why he finds that it had such successful early modernization. However, the country faced a number of crises (in large part due to the Algerian War), which forced Bourguiba’s Neo-Destour to lean a bit more to the “neo-Leninist” side.

This work is very clearly dated, but it’s a good attempt to make sense of postcolonial single-party states and why they function differently. His predictions about the presidential succession are a bit laughable (who would have guessed Bourguiba would be president until 1989, losing power in what was virtually a quiet coup??), but they are suggestive of much of the decolonizing hopefulness of the mid-60s.