[ظ،:ظ،ظ، ص, ظ،ظ¢/ظ§/ظ،ظ¤ظ¤ظ£ هـ] Mr.mossaad: Independeni Nortb Africa
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has wide laitude to make decisions on the spot-something which has been capital in handling the large public works unemployment program-but he cannot get too much out of hand because the smallness of Tunisia, and its facile communications allow for frequent consultation with the capital and the shadow of the central goverument is kept at just about optimum intensity.
All the governments of the new Maghrib states could legitimately be considered refom govemments, for each has made significant changes in the legal, judicial, and social structure of
its countries, but in Tunisia reform has been perhaps the mos notable among many accomplishments. Many of the details are discussed later under the heading of social change, but ment…
[ظ،:ظ،ظ£ ص, ظ،ظ¢/ظ§/ظ،ظ¤ظ¤ظ£ هـ] Mr.mossaad: The Unied States and Nortb Africa statemerc. This is almost, but not completely, true, and it may be getting less so very recently. But it is often hard to separate the two, and although Tunisia is not in any sense a one-party state with totalicarian harshness, it does have the unexciting air of a country in which one party is very dominant indeed. Aside from the neo-Destour today, there are only the Communists with a minuscule following, some young independents of the left, and the unorganized conservative remnants of the old Destour. Individuals sometirnes quarrel with Bourgwiba personally or break with party docurine, but they have almost always returned to the fold, and no real foyer of opposition has developed since the ben Youssef split in 1955 and early 1956.120
Once again the smooch social contours of Tunisia must be given credit. The party owes much of its success, frankly speaking, to the quality of the men who make up its top and medium leadership. The advancages of the age of civilization in the country begin to be seen; the relacive richness of human resources in Tunisia compared to many new countries is something it can be proud of and an asset which has been a leading facror in the country's successful adjustment to the modem world. The backbone of the neo-Destour hes come from the hard-headed merchants of the Sahel, dour and practical peasant individualists, artisans and craftsmen, the brightest lights among the professional classes in the cities, with a dosage of intellectuals to give it sauce. Its cormerstone has been, rather than the brillianc verbosity of many polirical movements, a quiet, pragrnatic flexibiliry, and it has folowed the rule that the art of politics is to know what is possible. From this spirit emerged the gradualist techniques of Bourguiba, to advance step-by-step, never to break contact with the interlocutor, to concinue negotiating at all times, and to compromise tactically but never on principles.
The top party leadership is honogeneous, too; some might almost say inbred. Most of the high officials are graduates of the Sadiqi College, and there is a nucleus from the specialized
schools in Paris, parricularly che Ecole Libre des Sciences Poli
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