Authoritarian Neoliberalism and The State of Exception
Reading Kais Saied’s Tunisia Through Agamben’s Biopolitics
Keywords:
Saied, authoritarian neoliberalism, state of exception, privilege-determiner, bare-life
Abstract
This article examines how Giorgio Agamben's concept of the state of exception is relevant to explaining Tunisia's failure to shift away from authoritarianism. Kais Saied's leadership's use of the state of exception routine is not merely seen as an attempt to expand his power. More deeply, the state of exception represents a normal state for governing every aspect of Tunisian society through authoritarian-neoliberalism discourse. Through an analysis of legal decrees, political speeches, and secondary literature, this study finds that Saied has transformed the emergency situation into normal governance by integrating legality, morality, and security into a permanent form of government. These findings reveal that democracy itself latently legitimizes the state of exception as a paradigm exploited by the privilege-determiners. The state of exception, repeatedly declared by ruling regimes, no longer serves to expand power but rather to ensure the continued regulation of social and physical life. Through the state of exception, authoritarianism infiltrates democracy, arbitrarily suspending the constitutional order and the separation of powers. Saied inherited this normalization only in a more subtle form through the co-optation of parliament, the delegitimization of the opposition, and the fragmentation of progressive political movements in the name of "securitization." Thus, the state of exception is not a suspension of the law, but rather the law itself. From an Agambenian perspective, the article argues that the primordial political relationship is one of abandonment: the state absorbs everyone into its order while simultaneously abandoning them to bare life, rendering Tunisian society a bulwark where violence is inevitable.
References
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Hibou, B. (2011). The force of obedience: The political economy of repression in Tunisia. Polity Press.
Hibou, B. (2022). The normalisation of the exception: State, economy and everyday life in Tunisia. Routledge.
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Lemke, T. (2005). “A zone of indistinction”: A critique of Giorgio Agamben’s concept of biopolitics. Outlines: Critical Practice Studies, 7(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.7146/ocps.v7i1.2107
López, B. (2022). Tunisia 2021: Anatomy of a coup foretold. In Mediterranean Yearbook 2022 (pp. 242–250). European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed).
Mabon, S. (2018). Existential threats and regulating life: Securitization in the contemporary Middle East. Global Discourse, 8(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2017.1410001
Madi, S. (2023). Power resources, institutional legacy and labour standards transformation. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 45(4), 987–1015. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X231204770
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Schumacher, M. J., & Ghannouchi, R. (2024). Democratic erosion and political accountability in Tunisia. Arab Reform Initiative Working Paper Series.
Sigillò, E. (2017). Beyond the myth of the Tunisian exception: The open-ended tale of a fragile democratisation. The Journal of North African Studies, 22(2), 275–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2016.1237692
Streeck, W. (2016). How will capitalism end? Essays on a failing system. Verso Books.
Tamburini, F. (2018). Anti-terrorism laws in the Maghreb countries: The mirror of a democratic transition that never was. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 53(8), 1235–1250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909618779613
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Tamburini, F. (2021). The ghost of the constitutional review in Tunisia. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 57(4), 725–742. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096211037039
Tansel, C. B. (2017). Authoritarian neoliberalism: Philosophies, practices, contestations. Routledge.
Tunis Afrique Presse. (2023, February 15). President Saied warns against conspiracies targeting national security.https://www.tap.info.tn (Accessed October 17, 2025)
Weber, C. (1998). Performative states. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 27(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298980270011101
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Yssen, S. S. F., & Stokke, K. (2024). Resisting autocratization? Civil society’s response to the autocratic turn in Tunisia. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift – Norwegian Journal of Geography, 78(4), 234–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2024.2424943
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life (D. Heller-Roazen, Trans.). Stanford University Press.
Agamben, G. (2005). State of exception. University of Chicago Press.
Agamben, G. (2011). The kingdom and the glory: For a theological genealogy of economy and government. Stanford University Press.
Agamben, G. (2013). The highest poverty: Monastic rules and form-of-life. Stanford University Press.
Agamben, G. (2015). The use of bodies. Stanford University Press.
Albrecht, H., Bufano, M., & Koehler, K. (2021). Role model or role expansion? Popular perceptions of the military in Tunisia. Political Research Quarterly, 75(2), 321–337. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211001451
Amnesty International. (2023). Tunisia: Wave of arrests signals alarming backslide on human rights.https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde30/2023 (Accessed October 12, 2025)
Bellin, E. (2012). Reconsidering the robustness of authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring. Comparative Politics, 44(2), 127–149. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23211807
Bishara, D., & Grewal, S. (2022). Political, not partisan: The Tunisian General Labor Union under democracy. Comparative Politics, 54(3), 453–475. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27161835
Bou Nassif, H. (2022). Why the military abandoned democracy. Journal of Democracy, 33(1), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0002
Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. Zone Books.
Bruff, I. (2014). The rise of authoritarian neoliberalism. Rethinking Marxism, 26(1), 113–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2013.843250
Bruff, I. (2019). Authoritarian neoliberalism: From the rule of law to the law of rulers. In C. B. Tansel (Ed.), States of discipline: Authoritarian neoliberalism and the contested reproduction of capitalist order (pp. 1–20). Rowman & Littlefield.
Butcher, C., Gray, J., & Mitchell, L. (2018). Striking it free? Organized labor and the outcomes of civil resistance. Journal of Global Security Studies, 3(3), 302–321. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogy010
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex”. Routledge.
Chabot, A., & Essebsi, B. C. (2016). Tunisie: La démocratie en Terre d’Islam. Plon.
Chomiak, L. (2016). The making of a revolution in Tunisia. Middle East Law and Governance, 3(1–2), 68–83. https://doi.org/10.1163/187633711x591431
Christiaens, T. (2021). Agamben’s theories of the state of exception: From political to economic theology. Cultural Critique, 110, 49–74. https://doi.org/10.5749/culturalcritique.110.2021.0049
Cimini, G. (2024). Crises of authority in the Arab world: Readings from contemporary Tunisia. Middle East Critique, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2024.2408098
Cooper, M. (2017). Family values: Between neoliberalism and the new social conservatism. Zone Books.
DCAF. (2024). Legal database relating to the security sector in Tunisia. The Center for Security Sector Governance. https://legislation-securite.tn (Accessed October 29, 2025)
Davies, W. (2014). The limits of neoliberalism: Authority, sovereignty and the logic of competition. SAGE.
Desrues, T., & Gobe, E. (2021). ‘We don’t want to be governed like this anymore’: Protest democracy as an expression of a crisis of governmentality in post-revolution Tunisia. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 50(3), 648–665. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2021.1996333
Desrues, T., & Gobe, E. (2025). Kais Saied’s governance: The Tunisian president’s drift from inclusive populist constitutionalism to ‘Caesarism’. The Journal of North African Studies, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2025.2469056
Emig, A. K., & Schumacher, M. J. (2025). The wilting jasmine: The erosion of public administration and democratic backsliding in Tunisia. Policy Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2025.2460442
EuroMed Rights. (2024). Tunisia: Trade union repression intensifies under Saied. https://euromedrights.org (Accessed October 15, 2025)
Fekih, A. (2023). Tunisia’s opposition in disarray: Between repression and fragmentation. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org (Accessed October 14, 2025)
Foucault, M. (2003). Society must be defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–76. Picador.
Gherib, B. (2020). Revolution and transition in Tunisia as crises of hegemony. The Journal of North African Studies, 26(6), 1144–1165. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2020.1801269
Gill, S. (1995). Globalisation, market civilisation, and disciplinary neoliberalism. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 24(3), 399–423. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298950240030801
Gobe, E. (2023). Kais Saied’s Tunisia: A new republic with old authoritarian tactics. European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). https://www.iemed.org/publication/kais-saieds-tunisia-a-new-republic-with-old-authoritarian-tactics/
Hall, S. (2017). Selected political writings: The great moving right show and other essays (S. Davison, D. Featherstone, M. Rustin, & B. Schwarz, Eds.). Duke University Press.
Han, S. (2020). Securitization of the unemployed and counter-conductive resistance in Tunisia. Security Dialogue, 52(2), 156–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010620922720
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
Hibou, B. (2006). La privatisation de l’État: Analyse du processus de démocratisation autoritaire. Karthala.
Hibou, B. (2011). The force of obedience: The political economy of repression in Tunisia. Polity Press.
Hibou, B. (2022). The normalisation of the exception: State, economy and everyday life in Tunisia. Routledge.
Human Rights Watch. (2021). Tunisia: President’s power grab endangers democracy. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021(Accessed October 22, 2025)
Khaddar, M. M. (2023). Tunisian democratisation: Dashed hopes between 2010 and 2022. The Journal of North African Studies, 28(6), 1324–1344. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2023.2203465
Khondker, H. (2019). The impact of the Arab Spring on democracy and development in the MENA region. Sociology Compass, 13(9). https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12726
Kisner, M. (2007). Bare life, politics and the ontology of the human: Agamben and Heidegger. Contemporary Political Theory, 6(3), 300–320.
Lemke, T. (2005). “A zone of indistinction”: A critique of Giorgio Agamben’s concept of biopolitics. Outlines: Critical Practice Studies, 7(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.7146/ocps.v7i1.2107
López, B. (2022). Tunisia 2021: Anatomy of a coup foretold. In Mediterranean Yearbook 2022 (pp. 242–250). European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed).
Mabon, S. (2018). Existential threats and regulating life: Securitization in the contemporary Middle East. Global Discourse, 8(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2017.1410001
Madi, S. (2023). Power resources, institutional legacy and labour standards transformation. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 45(4), 987–1015. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X231204770
Maryon, R. (2024). “Securing the state” in post-2011 Tunisia: Performativity of the authoritarian neoliberal state. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 17(2), 224–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2024.2334864
Moustafa, T. (2014). Law and courts in authoritarian regimes. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 10(1), 281–299. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030532
Peck, J. (2010). Constructions of neoliberal reason. Oxford University Press.
Pilati, K., Acconcia, G., Suber, D., & Chennaoui, H. (2021). Protest demobilization in post-revolutionary settings. Political Studies, 71(3), 634–654. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217211034050
Presidency of the Republic of Tunisia. (2022, July 25). Speech by President Kais Saied. Carthage Palace. (Accessed October 28, 2025)
Rèfle, J. (2022). Old civil society networks and their role for the Tunisian political landscape. Middle East Law and Governance, 15(1), 100–127. https://doi.org/10.1163/18763375-20221319
Rivera-Escartin, A. (2021). Tunisia’s democratisation process: When ‘consensus democracy’ undermines democratic consolidation. Third World Quarterly, 43(2), 414–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.2015315
Sadiki, L., & Layla, S. (2024). Revolution and democracy in Tunisia: A century of protestscapes. Oxford University Press.
Santini, R. (2018). The paradox of Tunisia’s secularism: Between authoritarianism and pluralism. Mediterranean Politics, 23(1), 70–89.
Schumacher, M. J., & Ghannouchi, R. (2024). Democratic erosion and political accountability in Tunisia. Arab Reform Initiative Working Paper Series.
Sigillò, E. (2017). Beyond the myth of the Tunisian exception: The open-ended tale of a fragile democratisation. The Journal of North African Studies, 22(2), 275–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2016.1237692
Streeck, W. (2016). How will capitalism end? Essays on a failing system. Verso Books.
Tamburini, F. (2018). Anti-terrorism laws in the Maghreb countries: The mirror of a democratic transition that never was. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 53(8), 1235–1250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909618779613
Tamburini, F. (2020). The state of emergency and exception in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia: The ‘license to kill’ the rule of law? Journal of Asian and African Studies, 56(6), 1286–1303. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909620962530
Tamburini, F. (2021). The ghost of the constitutional review in Tunisia. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 57(4), 725–742. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096211037039
Tansel, C. B. (2017). Authoritarian neoliberalism: Philosophies, practices, contestations. Routledge.
Tunis Afrique Presse. (2023, February 15). President Saied warns against conspiracies targeting national security.https://www.tap.info.tn (Accessed October 17, 2025)
Weber, C. (1998). Performative states. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 27(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298980270011101
Weilandt, R. (2022). Tunisia: From the state of exception to a populist and authoritarian turn. European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) Report.
Yerkes, S., & Muasher, M. (2018). Tunisia’s fragile democracy: What role for the international community? Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (Accessed October 19, 2025)
Yssen, S. S. F., & Stokke, K. (2024). Resisting autocratization? Civil society’s response to the autocratic turn in Tunisia. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift – Norwegian Journal of Geography, 78(4), 234–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2024.2424943
Published
2025-12-04
How to Cite
Rivai, A. N. A. (2025). Authoritarian Neoliberalism and The State of Exception: Reading Kais Saied’s Tunisia Through Agamben’s Biopolitics. Proceedings of Sunan Ampel International Conference of Political and Social Sciences, 3, 76-97. https://doi.org/10.15642/saicopss.2025.3.76-97
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Copyright (c) 2025 Aspin Nur Arifin Rivai
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