Atlas / Organisations / Ennahda

Ennahda

1981– · Tunisia · Islamist Democratic · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

+03ECmarket
+06CUtraditional
−02AUpluralist
+02SCcentral
+03IDascriptive
−06CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

An Islamist party that wrote a constitution with a secular opposition, conceded power voluntarily, and declared itself Muslim democratic rather than Islamist.

Economic model

Market economy with social programmes, tourism and phosphate exports, IMF negotiations.

Organisation of powers

Gave up government in 2014 after losing an election and negotiated the constitution that followed the revolution.

Reading note

Included because it is the strongest available counter-example to the claim that Islamist parties cannot accept losing.

Check a claim about Ennahda. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

Open in the atlas

The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +03

Coded +3: market economy with social programmes.

  • Documented act or statuteGoverned through IMF negotiations without restructuring ownership.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06

Coded +6: religious conservatism that accepted a non-religious constitution.

  • Documented act or statuteWithdrew its proposal to reference sharia in the 2014 constitution during the drafting process.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −02

Coded −2: the strongest counter-example to the claim that Islamist parties cannot lose.

  • Documented act or statuteLeft government voluntarily in 2014 after negotiations with the secular opposition and the trade union federation.
  • Documented act or statuteThe mediating National Dialogue Quartet received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +02

Coded +2: a unitary state with decentralisation written into the 2014 constitution.

  • Documented act or statuteThe constitution provided for elected local government, first held in 2018.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +03

Coded +3 after the v2.2 review: confessional identity kept out of the membership rule.

  • Documented act or statuteThe 2014 constitution guarantees freedom of conscience, unusual in the region.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −06

Coded −6: entirely electoral and consensual in method.

  • Documented act or statuteGoverned in coalition with a secular party from 2014.

Where it came from, and what came after

Scores that have been revised

ID +05 → +03The party withdrew its own proposal to reference sharia in the constitution and governed in coalition with a secular party. Its confessional identity was not written into the membership rule.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Tunisia

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Ennahda. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/ennahda/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.