The Neoliberal Cage: Alternative Analysis of the Rise of Populist Tunisia

Abstract On the occasion of Tunisia’s 2019 legislative and presidential elections, politics witnessed the proliferation of distinct varieties of populism that culminated in the electoral victory of the current president, Kais Saied. This article argues that the Kais Saied phenomenon inscribes into a Tunisian ‘populist moment’ that found fertile terrain in the protraction of the socioeconomic crisis and the absence of a radical critique of the neoliberal order. Although Kais Saied proposed an alternative to traditional politics in his electoral campaign, he did not seem likely to shake the foundations on which Tunisia’s neoliberal cage has been built. Rather, an empirical analysis of the context of his ascent suggests that populism à la Kais Saied surfaced as the by-product of an unquestioned neoliberal order, reinforced by the political elite of the post-Arab Uprisings period.