Tunisia was ruled by a hereditary monarchy until the French made the country a protectorate in 1883. Nationalist pressure for independence began in 1934 with the formation of the Néo-Destour (New Constitution) Party (NDP) under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba. Internal self-government was granted in 1955; independence as a constitutional monarchy under the Bey of Tunis came a year later. In 1957, the Bey was overthrown and a republic proclaimed, with Bourguiba as President. Despite independence, the French insisted on holding onto a naval base at Bizerta on the northern coast, but lost it in 1963 after a naval blockade by the Tunisians and several months of heavy fighting. The ruling Parti Socialiste Destourien (renamed Rassemblement Constitutionel Démocratique in 1988), successor to the NDP, has maintained a strong grip. Bourguiba pursued unsuccessful socialist policies in the early part of his regime, but in the 1970s opened the economy up to foreign investment and allowed the development of a private sector. By the crude measure of per capita domestic income, the lot of the Tunisians greatly improved during this second phase. At the time of his fall from power in November 1987, Bourguiba had been in control for 30 years, at first through elections to the single party, and after 1975 as President-for-Life. Following a pronouncement by his own team of doctors that Bourguiba was no longer of sound mind, Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumed the presidency unopposed. Tunisia has played host to the leadership and many of the fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since their enforced departure from the Lebanon following the Israeli invasion in 1982. An important foreign policy development occurred in February 1989 with the formation of the Union of the Arab Maghreb, conceived as a political and economic bloc in north Africa, in response to the EC in Europe, and comprising Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. As President Ben Ali consolidated his position, the Government introduced economic reforms to complement the political liberalisation process. Tunisia has watched developments in neighbouring Algeria with increasing concern, but the thwarting of the fundamentalists by the Algerian government has been followed by an improvement in relations. Tunisia has its own influential Islamic movement, Nahda, but it is not a legal political party within the Government. Nahda has grown quickly in the last few years and may have benefited from outside funding. The Islamists have not benefited from the partial relaxation of previous strict controls of political parties which has been underway since the early 1980s. Candidates other than those from the PSD are now able to stand for election, but there are definite limits to political dissent which the government will not tolerate, as the arrest and detention of the leaders of the communists and Democratic Socialists at various times in the last 18 months illustrate. Presidential elections were held in March 1994 and Ben Ali was re-elected with 99.90f the vote. At legislative elections held at the same time, half of the 19 seats reserved for the opposition were allocated to the Democratic Socialists, and the others divided between the Mouvement de la Renovation (formerly the communists), the Union Démocratique Unioniste and the Parti de l’Unité Populaire. Abroad, because of the crisis in Algeria, Tunisia has taken over some of the traditional mediating role which was frequently assumed by Algeria (during the Iran-Iraq war, for example). A recent example is Tunisia’s mediation in the dispute between the West and Libya over the extradition of Libyan suspects for the Lockerbie aircraft bombing in 1987. Tunisia had no direct involvement in the moves leading to the PLO-Israeli settlement in 1993 despite hosting the bulk of the PLO leadership, although there may have been certain secret negotiations taking place behind the scenes.
Government: Under the 1959 constitution, legislation is the responsibility of the unicameral Chamber of Deputies, whose 163 members are elected by universal adult suffrage for five years. All but 19 seats, which are reserved for opposition parties under a system of proportional representation, are elected under a simple majority system. The President, who is also elected by universal suffrage for a 5-year term, is head of state and appoints a Prime Minister and a Council of Ministers who exercise executive power under his leadership. There are also various advisory bodies: the State Council, the Social and Economic Council, the Constitutional Council and the Higher Islamic Council.