Contextual Analysis of the Formation of the Tunisian Revolution: In Search of Dignity

The public considers sociopolitical revolutions and movements as phenomena that occur suddenly and unpredictably. Still, these phenomena carry historical content and stem from sophisticated sociopolitical, cultural, and economic factors in the view of political scientists. Such a view provides the context in which sociopolitical revolutions and movements are analyzed, not in a single cause, but based on a diverse range of factors, to investigate the consequences. In this situation, the factors affecting the formation of sociopolitical phenomena are investigated at the level of structural analysis. The structural look at the factors influencing the formation of sociopolitical revolutions allows the researcher to explain the various fields affecting revolutions, and by examining the role of political agents in the creation of political structures and their impact on structures offers multi-factor analysis. Therefore, what is essential in this study is to look at those structural factors that have hidden in political, economic, cultural, and even historical contexts. Hence, they need to compare with political agents. Still, the setting for entering such a look gives through a review of historical data that, with a historical sequence resulted in political events that took place in the Tunisian revolution in 2011. The present study aimed to investigate the structures that had an impact on the Jasmine revolution as well as the agency of Tunisian people. Our analysis demonstrates that the Tunisian revolution in 2011 took place based on the interaction of structure and agency. Political, economic, cultural, and religious structures provided the context for the agency of Tunisians. They were searching for dignity that had been ignored during the last decades and resulted in the Jasmine revolution.