Legacies of Contention: Political Preference Formation in Postcolonial Tunisia

• In Event: Political Mobilization and State Formation in Postcolonial Societies

Abstract

What is the causal relationship between schooling and political cleavage formation in postcolonial contexts? This paper explores the selective provision of secondary schooling after colonialism in Tunisia as a mechanism driving spatial variation in political identification along the Islamist-Secularist cleavage. The paper develops a novel theory linking the spatiotemporal spread of distinct factions within Tunisia’s independence struggle and tests the hypothesis that after colonialism, Habib Bourguiba’s (1956-1987) regime employed education selectively in order to reward loyalists and to punish opponents. To test this claim, the study conducts analysis employing originally collected event data from French, American and Tunisian archives and a novel dataset of schools constructed after colonialism in Tunisia. The study rigorously describes the spatiotemporal pattern of contention in late colonial Tunisia, tracing the activities of factions loyal to Bourguiba and to his primary opponent Salah Ben Youssef prior to independence. Second, this paper traces postcolonial development, linking the schism between Bourguiba and Ben Youssef to development after colonialism, and to schooling. Third, the paper employs a matching strategy to assess the causal relationship between levels and kinds of contentious politics in the late colonial period and subsequent political development.

Author

• Hani Warith