Tunisia’s system of local governance has undergone a profound transformation over the past decade. What began after the 2011 revolution as an ambitious effort to decentralize power, strengthen elected municipalities, and bring decision-making closer to citizens has gradually been replaced by a different political and institutional model.
The report “Local Authorities: Between the Central-Local Dialectic” examines this transformation and explores the evolving relationship between local institutions and Tunisia’s central government. It focuses particularly on the shift from the decentralization framework established by the 2014 Constitution to the “bottom-up construction” system developed under the 2022 Constitution.
At the centre of the report is a fundamental question: does Tunisia’s new system genuinely transfer power to citizens and local communities, or does it use local representation to reinforce authority at the national level?
From Decentralization to a New Political Structure
Following the 2011 revolution, decentralization became one of the central pillars of Tunisia’s democratic transition. The 2014 Constitution established a legal framework intended to redistribute authority from the central government to elected local and regional bodies.
This process was reinforced by the 2018 Local Authorities Code, which defined the relationship between central, regional, and local institutions and recognised principles such as local autonomy, self-governance, participatory democracy, and the transfer of responsibilities and resources.
The objective was not simply to create more administrative bodies. It was to enable municipalities and other local authorities to manage public affairs, identify development priorities, and respond more directly to citizens’ needs.
However, according to the report, this decentralization process did not receive sufficient time to mature. Instead of assessing its achievements, correcting its weaknesses, and gradually completing its institutions, Tunisia moved toward a substantially different model of local representation.
The Origins of the “Bottom-Up Construction” Model
The report traces the origins of the “bottom-up construction” concept to an initiative presented by Kais Saied in August 2013, when he was still a professor of constitutional law.
At the time, Tunisia was engaged in intense political debates surrounding the drafting of the post-revolution Constitution. Saied proposed replacing the existing representative system with a new structure beginning at the local level.
Under this approach, citizens would elect local council members as individuals rather than through party lists. Representation would then move upward from local councils to regional councils and finally to a national body.
The proposal received limited political attention at the time. Tunisia subsequently adopted the 2014 Constitution with broad support, and the chapter on decentralization achieved a high degree of consensus among the political groups represented in the National Constituent Assembly.
The concept returned to public debate after Kais Saied became president and particularly following the political measures introduced on 25 July 2021.
The report argues that the dissolution of elected municipal councils in March 2023 and their replacement by appointed special delegations represented a decisive turning point. It intensified concerns that the decentralization process was being dismantled and that local government was being reorganised according to a different political philosophy.
The 2022 Constitution and the Decline of Decentralization
The 2022 Constitution marked a significant departure from the constitutional framework adopted in 2014.
The report notes that the new Constitution does not provide explicit guarantees for continuing the decentralization process. It also removes or reduces the constitutional emphasis on concepts such as “local authority,” administrative decentralization, local autonomy, and self-governance.
Although the 2022 Constitution retains a three-level territorial structure consisting of municipalities, regions, and districts, it does not clearly define the responsibilities of the councils operating at each level.
Instead, it establishes a second parliamentary chamber: the National Council of Regions and Districts.
This chamber was formed through a multi-level process beginning with local elections, followed by the selection of representatives for regional and district councils. The National Council of Regions and Districts was formally inaugurated on 19 April 2024.
Supporters of this system describe it as a form of participatory democracy that allows political representation to rise from local communities toward the centre. They argue that smaller electoral constituencies create stronger links between citizens and representatives and reduce the influence of political parties and electoral finance.
The report, however, raises doubts about whether this upward system genuinely empowers local communities or primarily channels locally elected representatives into a central legislative institution.
Elections Before Defining Responsibilities
One of the report’s principal criticisms concerns the lack of a complete legal framework defining the roles and powers of the new councils.
Decree-Law No. 10 of 2023 regulated the composition of local councils and the process through which members advance to regional councils, district councils, and the National Council of Regions and Districts. However, the report argues that this legislation concentrated on how the councils would be formed without adequately explaining what they would do.
This created a situation in which candidates ran for office and voters participated in elections without a sufficiently clear understanding of the elected councils’ responsibilities.
The report raises several questions:
- How could candidates develop meaningful electoral programmes before their councils’ responsibilities were legally defined?
- How could elected members begin their work without knowing the exact limits of their authority?
- What is the relationship between municipalities and the newly created local councils?
- How will responsibilities be divided between the Assembly of the Representatives of the People and the National Council of Regions and Districts?
- What happens when the two parliamentary chambers disagree over budgets or development plans?
This legal ambiguity has become one of the most significant challenges facing the new system.
Conflicting Interpretations of the Legal Framework
The report also highlights conflicting statements from state officials regarding which laws apply to the newly elected local and regional institutions.
In March 2024, President Kais Saied stated that the 2018 Local Authorities Code did not apply to the new local, regional, and district councils because Tunisia was operating under a new constitutional system.
This position contrasted with an earlier statement by a member of the Independent High Authority for Elections, who argued that no complete legislative vacuum existed because several earlier laws and decrees could still regulate aspects of the councils’ work.
Such conflicting interpretations, the report argues, deepen uncertainty over the legal status of the councils, their responsibilities, and their relationship with existing municipal institutions.
The absence of a clear organising framework also raises questions about the legitimacy and effectiveness of the National Council of Regions and Districts, particularly when its responsibilities overlap with those of the first parliamentary chamber.
Representation Through Rotation and Selection by Lot
Another controversial aspect of the new model is the rotation of representatives from local councils to regional councils.
Under Decree-Law No. 10 of 2023, local council members rotate every three months through a selection-by-lot mechanism. Supporters consider this arrangement a way of broadening participation and preventing a limited group of representatives from controlling regional institutions.
However, the report cites concerns that three-month terms may be too short for representatives to develop policies, monitor projects, build institutional experience, or ensure administrative continuity.
Frequent rotation may also generate disputes between members and create obstacles to implementing long-term development programmes. Effective local governance requires not only representation but also institutional memory, technical knowledge, accountability, and sufficient time to follow projects from planning to completion.
Does Bottom-Up Representation Empower the Centre?
The central argument of the report is that the new system may elevate central power rather than strengthen local authority.
Traditional decentralization involves transferring responsibilities, resources, and decision-making powers from the national government to autonomous local institutions. By contrast, the “bottom-up construction” model moves representatives upward from local councils toward a central legislative chamber.
From the report’s perspective, these are two fundamentally different processes.
Locally elected representatives become members of a national institution involved in legislative and oversight activities. Their most significant powers may therefore be exercised at the centre rather than within the communities that elected them.
The report argues that this creates a gap between the public presentation of the system and its institutional outcome. Although representation begins locally, the final destination remains a central state institution.
It also questions whether members of the second parliamentary chamber can be considered practitioners of direct participatory democracy. Once they become national officials who exercise legislative and oversight powers, they operate within a representative system similar in several respects to members of the first chamber.
The Uncertain Position of Municipalities
The position of municipal councils remains one of the most important unresolved issues.
The National Council of Regions and Districts is composed through representation moving from local councils to regional and district councils. Yet municipalities do not occupy a clearly defined position within this chain.
This raises a critical distinction between municipal government and political representation.
Municipalities are responsible for practical local services, urban planning, environmental management, infrastructure, public spaces, waste collection, and other matters that directly affect daily life. Local councils created for political representation may have a different purpose.
Without clear legal boundaries, the coexistence of municipalities and local councils could create overlapping responsibilities, institutional competition, or uncertainty over which body represents citizens and controls local development priorities.
Two Parliamentary Chambers and the Risk of Overlapping Powers
The establishment of the National Council of Regions and Districts introduced a bicameral legislative system in Tunisia.
The 2022 Constitution gives both parliamentary chambers a role in approving state budgets and development plans. However, the report notes that the legal mechanisms governing cooperation, disagreement, and conflict between them have not been sufficiently clarified.
Both chambers are composed of representatives elected as individuals, without formal party-list representation. This raises questions about the substantive political distinction between them.
The second chamber is intended to represent territorial interests and regional development priorities. Yet without clearly differentiated responsibilities, disputes may arise over legislative authority, budget approval, oversight, and national development planning.
A bicameral system can provide broader representation and stronger institutional checks, but only when the powers of each chamber are clearly defined and supported by effective procedures for resolving disagreements.
Limited Electoral Participation and Questions of Legitimacy
The report also examines turnout in the local elections used to establish the new system.
Participation reached approximately 11.84% in the first round and 12.44% in the second round. These low figures raise questions about public engagement and the extent to which the new councils enjoy broad democratic legitimacy.
Low turnout may reflect several factors, including limited public understanding of the new institutional structure, uncertainty about the councils’ powers, declining trust in political institutions, or a lack of confidence that participation will produce meaningful change.
Whatever the reasons, building an entirely new governance structure on limited electoral participation presents a serious political and institutional challenge.
A Decentralization Process Interrupted
The report concludes that decentralization is a long-term process that requires gradual implementation, institutional learning, evaluation, and continued public participation.
Tunisia’s decentralization model had weaknesses and had not yet produced all its intended outcomes. However, the report argues that these shortcomings should have been addressed through reform rather than by abandoning the accumulated experience and rebuilding the system from the beginning.
Instead, Tunisia now faces a new institutional model whose legal framework, distribution of authority, and long-term sustainability remain uncertain.
The central challenge is not simply whether the new councils and second parliamentary chamber can begin operating. It is whether they can create an effective, accountable, and durable relationship between citizens, municipalities, regional institutions, and the central state.
Local Participation or Renewed Centralization?
The debate surrounding Tunisia’s new local governance system cannot be reduced to institutional structure alone. It concerns the meaning of political participation and the location of decision-making power.
A system may begin with local elections without necessarily producing strong local government. Genuine local empowerment requires clearly defined responsibilities, financial and administrative autonomy, stable institutions, and the ability to make and implement decisions at the community level.
The report invites readers to examine the difference between representation that originates locally and authority that remains local.
This distinction will ultimately determine whether Tunisia’s new model creates a more participatory form of democracy or reorganises political representation while preserving the dominance of the centre.
Download the Full Report
Read the complete report for a detailed examination of Tunisia’s local governance transformation, the “bottom-up construction” model, the 2022 Constitution, and the relationship between local institutions and central authority: