Tunisia's 2011 revolution captured global attention as a potential model for democratic transformation in the Arab world. Its subsequent collapse raised urgent questions about why democratic transitions fail and what can be learned for future efforts. This book is the first insider account of Tunisia's decade of democracy and its demise. The author, Youssef Chahed, was Prime Minister of Tunisia from 2016 – 2020 and remains to this day one of the politicians from the country who enjoys the greatest notoriety in both Tunisia and abroad. Covering the entire democratic decade and beyond, for the first time Youssef Chahed offers here his own analysis of what happened. The book is his interpretation of what led to the rise and fall of Tunisian democracy and it benefits from his first-hand experience of the social and historical context as it happened. Drawing on the unique perspective of a Prime Minister who served the longest in the post-revolutionary period, this book sheds new light on the challenges faced by the democratic transition.

Youssef Chahed served as Tunisia's youngest Prime Minister (2016-2020), leading the country through a complex process of building democracy while facing economic crises and ongoing counterterrorism challenges.Currently, he is Senior Fellow with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. In this capacity, he leads research and seminars on democratization and governance models in the Arab world. He holds a PhD from the National Institute of Agriculture in Paris, France