Before Tunisia's revolution, the country was neither an economic miracle nor a complete bust, but it was doing better than other countries in the region. Tunisia achieved an average economic growth rate of nearly 5 per cent during the last decade, outpacing other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Tunisia, however, was a complex case with a delicate authoritarian bargain between the regime and society. For a long time, the regime was able to provide economic and social gains and secure its legitimacy and political stability in return.
But the authoritarian bargain failed with the growing inability of the economy to create jobs for educated labour, the proliferation of unprotected and poorly paid jobs in the informal sector, and rising income inequality and regional disparities. Gradually, the losers from the status quo began to outnumber the winners - and this eroded the regime's legitimacy.
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