In Focus

The news spread almost instantaneously over Facebook, Twitter and text messaging: Mohamed Bouazizi, a young Tunisian vegetable seller, set fire to himself in protest at the confiscation of his goods and constant harassment by officialdom. Many of his fellow citizens also lived in poverty and suffered under the prevailing economic and political misery. This was the event that triggered the Tunisian revolution. But how have Tunisian society and its economy developed since then? Has the toppling of the dictatorship meant a liberation of productive forces? Or are they mired in old habits and inflexible structures?