The political economy of business elites in Tunisia : actors, strategies and identities

Abstract EN

When the Tunisian government seized the assets of the Ben Ali clan in 2011, prosperous companies were sold to some fractions of the business elite which started adopting a strategy of direct intervention in the political sphere to consolidate their resources and find new opportunities.

In order to study the position of business elites in Tunisia we use a methodology combining a social network analysis (SNA) of the board of directors of Tunisian listed companies and a qualitative history of its political economy.

We shed light on the regional identities of some family groups and the centrality of financial institutions such as insurance companies.

The financial sector is dominated by the State, but some Djerbian families occupy important positions.

Sfaxian entrepreneurs are organized in clusters that control certain large industrial enterprises.