Tunisia after the revolution : democracy between stalling and collapsing

Abstract

On December 17th, 2010 a perfectly unknown man, who was named Mohamed Bouazizi and who lived in a little-known small town in the centre of Tunisia called Sidi Bouzid, decided to set himself on fire in front of the Governor’s office. Unable to get a steady job of any kind, he tried to eke out a living for himself and his family by selling few vegetables that he carried around on a cart, but the police kept confiscating his cart and vegetables because he did not have a licence to be a street vendor. On that particular day, the same scenario was replayed once again, and once again he went to the Governor’s office to try to recuperate his belongings and/or get a licence for his trade. But once again, they would not even let him into the building. So he decided to burn himself.