Tunisia’s Tragedy

Tunisia was the only one of the Arab Spring countries to develop into a full-fledged liberal democracy. President Kais Saied’s recent coup is a transparent attempt at reversing the country’s democratization and making himself dictator. The Tunisian military should intervene, unseat Saied and restore the constitutional order. The recent coup illustrates the lack of national and international mechanisms to protect liberal democracy and prevent descent into autocracy. This is a severe international problem as the democratic world has seen an international regression in democratization in past decades and an increasing slide into autocracy. Tunisia’s fate is now in the hands of its military as Saied is not yet in full control and the military is morally obliged to intervene to save the country’s threatened liberal democracy.