The Future of Democracy in the Arab World:

—

What went wrong with the “Arab Spring”, and how to fix it?

By Mohamed Moncef Marzouki

Former President of Tunisia (2012-2014)

Mohamed Moncef Marzouki is the first democratically-elected President of Tunisia (2011 to 2014), January 14th Revolution in 2011, and is currently a Senior Fellow with the Democracy in Hard Places Initiative at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.

A doctor of medicine, a human rights activist, an author of numerous works on political philosophy in the Arab world, Marzouki is Tunisia’s first president in modern history to arrive at his position through fair and transparent elections. Upon the assumption of the presidency, Marzouki embarked on a mission to “open the doors” of the presidential palace through campaigns of transparency, participative democracy — and by encouraging a safe public space for civil organizations to flourish. During his term in office, Marzouki was a voice of social and revolutionary activism, calling for civilian rights, curtailment of the security apparatus, and economic sovereignty, and by transforming the presidency into a position of service to the Tunisian public. Occupying a middle ground between secularist and Islamist political standpoints, Marzouki was instrumental in creating a dialogue between all political, social, and religious tendencies in Tunisia — clearing the ground for an inclusive, stable, and consensus-based Tunisian democracy to take root.

He was the founder of the center-left Congress Party for the Republic (CPR), which was one of the parties that formed the governmental coalition from November 2011 to February 2014. In 2015, Dr. Marzouki founded the Movement for Popular Citizenship (“Harak al sha’b al muwatineen”), a civil movement seeking to encourage active citizen participation amongst all Tunisians.