What Tunisia tells us about Western conceptions of “corruption”

Prior to the fall of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisian economic management received gushing reviews. The IMF and World Bank praised Ben Ali’s liberalising policies since 1987. The economy, manufacturing, and living standards all grew faster than in other non-oil Arab states. Tunisia’s “competent leadership” and its low level of corruption were seen as major causes of success. Transparency International’s “corruption perception index” listed Tunisia as the least corrupt Arab country until 2003, when it was “overtaken” by the Gulf States. The “Ibrahim index of African governance” ranked Tunisia 8th in Africa in 2010, ahead of all other North African Arab states. One political scientist found that a “developmentalist ethos” prevented corruption among the country’s leadership. She considered Tunisia akin to “developmental states” such as South Korea and Taiwan, in which a small and competent bureaucracy, “insulated” from societal forces, could forge ahead developmentalism.