Editing Politics of Tunisia (section)

====Ben Ali regime====
President [[Zine El Abidine Ben Ali]] was criticized for the low levels of democracy and freedom of expression in the country by [[Amnesty International]] and various other organizations.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20091018051147/World%20media%20comment%20on%20President%20Ben%20Ali's%20electoral%20speech%20/ | title=World Media Comment on President Ben Ali's Speech | work=[[Zawya]] | date=October 16, 2009 | agency=[[Agence Tunis Afrique Presse]] | access-date=August 14, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017111029/http://www.zawya.com/story/ZAWYA20091018051147/ | archive-date=October 17, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE30/017/2010/en "Tunisia: Open Letter, Strong Concern..."] [[Amnesty International]], 2010</ref> which documented restrictions of basic human rights and obstruction of human rights organizations. ''[[The Economist]]'''s 2008 [[Democracy Index]] ranked Tunisia 141 out of 167 countries studied and 143 out of 173 regarding freedom of the press.<ref>[http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy%20Index%202008.pdf "The Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy 2008"] ''[[The Economist]]'', 2008</ref> Later in his rule repression became more brutal, corruption more visible and the economy more stagnant.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gasiorowski|first1=Mark|title=The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa|date=2017|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=9780813350363|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JIS0CwAAQBAJ&q=Ben+Ali+more+brutal+and+more+more+corrupt&pg=PT333|access-date=20 October 2016}}</ref>