While the organizations that are analyzed are already outlined in chapter one, this section explains how organizations have been selected. Leaders of organizations and a labor union are selected and their framing is compared with civil servants in leading positions33. The Tunisian political system builds the context in that organizations operate. The comparison centers on mechanisms used and the ideational and policy influence of organizations. The access towards the Tunisian state is expected to vary among organizations, as does the possibility for influencing framing and policies. Each organization will use several mechanisms of transmission; the influence is expected to be different across organizations. However, it needs to be noted that the selection of cases is limited to at least partly influential movements, as irrelevant movements are not visible and no media data exists.
While individuals are interviewed, it is the group level that is important as discussed under 3.3; where a collective framing in terms of democracy is analyzed. It should be kept in mind that there is an on-going exchange between levels. Group perceptions are constructed through social interaction of individuals; a backwards-oriented influence can therefore not be excluded. Individual perceptions and their aggregation on a movement and organizational level (so intra-movement or intra-ministry dynamics) may be a point for further research. The collective perspective is expected to be found particularly among leaders, as those are used to speak on behalf of its constituency in public. The same goes for higher positions in ministries.
How organizations were selected
I compare cases to analyze single-movement but also collective influence. A case is described as “a spatially delimited phenomenon (a unit) observed at a single point in time or over some period of time” (Gerring 2007:19f.). The units under analysis are not representative for all organizations, but the case study has advantages for an exploratory research design that appears particularly suited to uncover the democratic framings. The research design uses a cross-case study as described by Gerring (2007). Four organizations of the Tunisian civil society were selected for analysis. Similar to Antonakis-Nashif’s model, civil society organizations in different sectors have been identified (Antonakis-Nashif 2016). For her research she identified gender justice, socio-economic justice and transitional justice as three fields of occupation that are analyzed. While I do not stick to the same fields, I use four different fields to show similarities and differences in democratic framing across different fields of activities.
The selection is based on an initial research for civil society organizations from different thematic sectors. The selection was inspired by the first empirical studies that followed the Uprisings and that mentioned active organizations. In addition, the participant list of the World Social Forum 2013 with organizations from Tunisia was screened. Organizations that then appeared several times during those search processes were estimated as active and potential targets of the research. The organizations were then contacted on the basis of thematic fields of activity, leading to the analyzed and some additional organizations. That organizations formally exist and that they are active are important for this research. It was seen as more probable that established organizations have already developed a relatively clear framing that is identifiable and that active organizations are easier to contact. Chapter one already described the four case organizations so that I recall some elements and explains the selection here.
Especially the UGTT (Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail) served as organization for activism and laboratory during the revolution (Mizouri 2012; Yousfi 2013b). The ATFD (Association tunisienne de femmes démocrates) on the other hand ensured that women were represented in protests during the transition and was also quite developed before the transition (Schraeder and Redissi 2011). Although prominent environmental movements are
difficult to identify, the FTDES (Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux) has been selected as example; it also covers migration and socio-economic rights. However, the FTDES covers similarly other aspects closer to UGTT topics. Despite being a rather young organization, a large number of publications exist on the FTDES facilitating access. While the human rights movement includes international actors like Amnesty International or Oxfam that qualify as NGOs due to missing mobilization on the ground and also have an international scope, one of the best-known actors in the field are the LTDH (Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des droits de l’Homme) and the ONAT (Ordre national des avocats tunisiens) that mobilize more on justice. It needs to be acknowledged that information on UGTT and ATFD is more widespread than on FTDES and LTDH. Especially for empirical studies, much more studies exist on the former than on the latter, allowing much more comparisons. It should be kept in mind that the UGTT as a labor union has a different status as negotiator of salaries, but equally mobilizes on social, political and economic problems. The UGTT is thus expected to hold more extensive contacts towards the state and enterprises as part of the tripartite configuration.
The organizations are compared on their democratic framing as well as with the democratic framing of the state. The aim is to verify on possible transmission of democratic framing from movements to the state. All selected organizations are expected to be at least partly successful with different degrees, as will be shown during the analysis. McAdam and Schaffer Boudet warn on selecting on the dependent variable and analyzing only successful movements (McAdam and Schaffer Boudet 2012). As elaborated previously, the selected movements are successful to a certain degree in terms of mobilization, but not necessarily in promoting democracy. Considering influence on policy members, it remains unclear which organization has more and which less access. It can only be expected that the UGTT with its tripartite configuration has a different access and other channels of transmission available. Due to a lack of data and the Tunisian history, when all movements had none up to very limited influence under the Ben Ali regime, there is no pre-existent successful movement in terms of impact. The long-lasting existence can thus not be taken as a criterion for potential impact as the political system changed. In addition, organizations were not selected on the basis of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was just announced after the first wave of interviews,
but which honored two of the selected movements (interviews with a third honored organization were used for comparison).
Another layer for comparison is the thematic orientation of organizations. Why are thematic orientations important? As every organization focuses on another topic, they are expected to have different framings of democracy linked to their field of occupation. The main issues covered are outlined in Table 3.1. The choice of organizations is important, as the chosen organizations are expected to hold different framings on democracy. The UGTT should combine workers’ rights and social aspects with democracy. The women movement is expected to focus on women rights and equality, while the LTDH should focus on human rights, freedom of association or freedom of speech. The FTDES is expected to promote environmental aspects, but also to address questions of poverty and social inequality. Those thematic orientations should be logically linked to certain dimensions of democracy and it makes less sense to connect for example women rights with a strong state.
Table 3.1 summarizes some of the major differences across organizations that have been presented before. Organizations vary considerably in size, a point to consider at the end. The last column establishes the distinction between the FTDES and the others as the FTDES was not officially registered under Ben Ali. It can be expected, that its structures and framing may be less developed than the others due to its newer origin. As framing might be limited, it can have negative consequences on their possible influence on the state. The FTDES is expected to show different characteristics in terms of framing or reputation due to its younger origin. From my theoretical perspective, the size or resources should not have an influence on the organizational framing or outcomes and are used for controlling for other factors.
Table 3.1 Differences across organizations
Organization Main topics Size34 Existed officially before
uprisings
UGTT Wage negotiations, social and economic problems, general policies
Seven hundred to seven hundred fifty thousand members
Yes, partly repressed
LTDH Human rights, torture, security Four thousand five hundred members Yes, repressed FTDES Environmental rights, migrant rights,
general socio-economic rights
Unknown, around ten fixed employees guessed35, fluent borders
to unorganized movements
No
ATFD Women rights (equality, own body, sexual rights, workers’ rights and so on)
Around one hundred fifty to two hundred active militants
Yes, repressed
34 See chapter one on sources.
The focus lies on organizations that stand for a wider movement due to practical reasons as it is easier to identify organizational leaders than unofficial movement leaders. The organizations that were selected have an elaborated member base and it is expected that members know what the organizations stand for. With newer organizations it would probably be more difficult to identify a group framing as this might still be much discussed. Multiple memberships occur among leaders showing also the connections on an individual level (on multiple membership see Diani 2015; Carroll and Ratner 1996; Knoke and Wisely 1990; Cornwell and Harrison 2004).
It was planned to include further organizations that work on additional subjects. Ennahdha as an Islamic actor was initially planned to be included (party with origins in a movement that still has a movement section36). It would have been interesting as divergent views exist between Ennahdha and the UGTT (Yousfi 2013b). It would have allowed to test whether a different perspective on democracy gets resonance in public and/or among civil servants. Access to interview partners showed particularly difficult and it was finally excluded.
In addition, the target of three interviews per organization has not been reached for organizations working on justice, but also human rights (ONAT), on capacity building (PASC as well as Jamaity), on social issues (OTDS) and on youth and democracy (TUN’Act). While interviews have been conducted with the organizations with less than three interviews, interviews were not analyzed systematically and serve as comparison especially as all except the ONAT represent organizations founded after the end of the Ben Ali regime. This layer of comparison of organizations founded after the revolution and those before is consequentially restricted to the comparison between the FTDES and others. The selection is not exhaustive and does not represent the entire Tunisian civil society.
Why are at least three leaders necessary for organizations to be included? To reduce individual perspective biases, the target of at least three interviews per organization has been identified because those allow comparing across individuals on similarities and differences. It also allows to decide when two interviews show the same and a third
36 The movement section is an organizational part of Ennahdha, the organizational structure distinguishes
between a party section and a movement section, the latter used for mobilization. As Ennahdha was initially not a political party, the second section still persists.
something different. At least three interviews were achieved for the UGTT, the ATFD, the LTDH, and the FTDES.
The selection of interviewees was based on the national level; regional leaders have not been included in line with the research focus on the national level37. As Tunisia is a very centralized country where main organizations need a representation in the capital, the study focusses solely on Tunis (Antonakis-Nashif 2016).
What is a leader?
Leaders of all selected organizations have been interviewed. A leader is a person involved in the management of the organization. The leader takes over responsibility for the discourse and/or action dimension (Giugni and Passy 1998). In my case, members of the national executive committee or presidents as well as their deputies have been contacted. The interviews are thus expected to represent the organizational perspective.
The selection of leaders of organizations is important as those frequently speak on behalf of the organizations and are consequentially capable to express organizational perspectives and not individual ones. This basic statement is important for the quality of the research. If leaders would have expressed personal perspectives, I could not speak about the organizational perspective. As a consequence, careful attention to the insistence on the collective perspective is given during interviews. In addition, interviews are verified afterwards, whereas the number of at least three interviews per organization is important. 3.1.2 State
Ministries have been chosen as they are highly involved in policy formulation. The choice of ministries was based on the initial responses by movement leaders. Keeping in mind that relevant ministries should be analyzed; the ministries have been contacted after movement leaders indicated that they interact with the respective ministries. The ministry selection bases on the question on which ministries they cooperate with. After a first evaluation of this question, ministries have been identified. Due to the different fields of activity, many different ministries were contacted as those were indicated by organizations38. Especially
37 The exact selection procedure is detailed under 3.3.1.
38 A list of all interviews and the respective ministries is found in the Annex, included ministries are the Ministry
of Women and Family, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Habitation, the
the FTDES and the UGTT leaders mentioned many different ministries with only few (for example the one on Religious Affairs) that were not discussed. Some ministries like the ones on Social Affairs, Relations with Civil Society and the Institutions as well as the Ministry of the Interior have been frequently evoked. As for organizations, ministries do not represent the entire Tunisian state that would also include regional as well as state-sponsored organizations. The research is consequentially limited to specific ministries. Two relevant ministries could not be included in the analysis as they did not reply to frequent requests, namely the Ministry of Social Affairs as well as the Ministry of Justice (the latter being crucial for the LTDH). Consequences will be discussed later when discussing biases.
Civil servants interviewed in ministries represent higher levels (at least head of section) as those should be capable to speak on behalf of the ministry. Preference was given to include many ministries to see whether there is a common state perspective. The analysis is focused on the general state perspective and not on the individual ministries as the aim is to identify mechanism for frame transmission that are valid across ministries. Again, only collective perspectives are analyzed, leaving individual perspectives aside. On both side compound players are regarded.
Comparing the impact on ministries across organizations
For this thesis four civil society organizations and their democratic framings are analyzed and compared. After assessing the democratic framings, these framings are compared with what can be found on the site of the state as well as in public opinion. The comparison indicates which movement has more influence and which frames are repeated most. The idea is to account for the direct and indirect effects (as well as joint) as outlined in the theory chapter.
As Amenta et al. underline in relation to outcomes and social movements, comparative designs analyzing several movements can reveal the influence of these (Amenta et al. 2010). They argue to compare across issues and beyond the agenda setting stage (ibid). By using the cross-organizational comparison in my case, it becomes possible to relate the differences in ideational impact to networks and democratic framing.
Ministry of Relations with Civil Society and the Institutions, the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Presidency of the Government.
The research design focuses only on the differences between movements and not on the differences across space (different regions) or time (before and after the revolution for example). Although the other two dimensions are equally important, this research focusses on the differences between movements due to limited data and because very few research exists on the actual situation. The data generated is seen as rich in validity for the actual situation, but is not very reliable as any research during other moments or other locations will generate different results. A comparison across space in Tunisia makes less sense in my case, as Tunis as Tunisian capital and level for discussions between groups and ministries is the focus of research.
3.1.3 Timing
I shortly introduce the time frame to situate the analysis in the context of the democratization process in Tunisia. As we see from Figure 3.2 the analysis was conducted when democratization processes are ongoing. The initial uprisings were already over as a new constitution has been accepted and first elections took place. The time horizon of the analyses ranges from January 2015 to December 2016. The research design is not longitudinal and the period is not determined by any important event. The study uses one point in time of the transformation to analyze the framings on democracy and the influence on state institutions. This point in time could have been any point, as the influence of movements should be measurable at different points, although with different degrees. The data collection period is influenced by practical reasons as the data collection plan was ready at the beginning of 2015. Interviews started mid-2015 and ended in 2016, the timing for media data was set so that it also covers few months before and few months after the interviews to gain a broader picture. It is expected that perceptions of democracy become more stable sometime after the uprisings and thus starting around four years after the uprisings appears as a good starting point.
As outlined in chapter one, the period includes one change of the prime minister, a reshuffle of the government as well as a change of the strongest bloc in parliament due to changed membership of parliamentarians. The change of the prime minister can be considered as important event. Terrorism was another important issue during the time of analysis as 2015 occurred an attack in Sousse and end of 2016 in Tunis.
A longitudinal design would have enabled retracing the changed importance of social movement actors for the state and their changed perspectives of framing; however, that is not an aim of this research. It is the purpose to give a detailed explanation of the situation at the point of analysis in order to build a basis for future research.
It cannot be excluded that the situation as found in 2015/2016 already changed by the time of writing, however the political system is more stable than in the first years after the initial uprisings leading up to the new constitution and first free elections. The next section looks at the data that has been collected for this thesis.