The Substance of Democracy behind Layers of Discourses: EU's Democracy Promotion in Tunisia

Abstract: Following the signature of the Millennium Declaration in 2000, and of the Lisbon treaty in 2009, the EU developed a key-role role on the international stage notably through the development of the CSFP and its HR representative, Federica Mogherini. While the EU reinforced its security policies, its involvement in developing countries increased as well. Higher requirements toward its foreign partners are expected, notably regarding the implementation of democratic principles. The EUROMED partnership, through which Tunisia is bound to the EU´s financial support and socio-economic goals, deploys a wide range of democracy promotion instruments. This research looks at the meanings of democracy in the context of the EU-Tunisian partnership through a transversal discursive analysis based on the work of Chaban & Holland, the foucauldian normative theory and the criteria for an ideal democracy from Dahl and Habermas. The analysis compares two layers of democratic discourses: the official one, from the EU and the Tunisian government; and the civil society level, from NGOs, journalists and activist bloggers. The aim of the study being to look at the possible mismatch between democratic discourse and democratic realities, resulting in a transformation of the democracy definition. The findings show discrepancies between the EU´s institutionalized democratic discourse, the Tunisian governments newly democratic discourse based on familial and religious values, and finally a Tunisian civil society distanced from political life, but speaking the "parrhesian" truth of Foucault and appearing as the last authentic layer of authentic democracy.