The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Sarah Chayes writes in an oped for the L.A. Times that the main obstacle to Tunisia’s democratization is "acute economic injustice and the pervasive and structured corruption” that set off the Jasmine Revolution last year. Citing the various arrogations of public resources and financial gains for the benefit of regime insiders, Chayes notes that “the regime perpetrated its oppression by means of a diabolically intrusive system of state corruption.” A commission established after the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali released a report exposing how Ben Ali’s in-laws and cronies reaped the benefits of “stakes in the most lucrative businesses, exemption from customs dues, choice public land. Despite the new commission and the installment of a new minister for “governance and anti-corruption,” many fear that these developments are for show. People remain concerned that the current political elite, including the ruling Islamist party, “intends to quietly appropriate the old structures and practices for their own benefit.” As Chayes points out, Tunisia must capitalize on this historical, post-revolutionary moment to ensure accountability. Without stringent anti-corruption measures, “Tunisia may truly radicalize, turning to militant, puritanical readings of Islam to afford recourse the post-revolutionary democracy did not.”

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