Regime Change and Elite Behaviour: The case of the 2010–2011 Tunisian Uprisings

Abstract

This paper focuses on the practices, decisions and transformations experienced by the Tunisian Politically Relevant Elites (PRE) during the popular uprising of 17 December 2010 - 14 January 2011. Based on a series of interviews with these PREs, we show that this event constituted a political crisis leading to regime change without defection from security, economic and political elites. In other words, Ben Ali's authoritarian regime fell without any regime crisis, i.e. without any break in the relations and rule of command between the major PREs.