Relations between local communities and the central government in Tunisia have historically been conflictual, with the centre continuously seeking to subjugate these communities. The regional and local administrative units, embodied since the Ottoman presence by the institutions of the Caid and the Sheikh, then the Caliph, contributed to the formation of the emerging central authority as the nucleus of the State in its modern conception, the consolidation of its influence in its territorial environment, and the imposition of its control over the tribe, which was the predominant social and political organization in Tunisian society.

Despite the long-term evolution of regional and local government in the legal system, decentralization as a mode of administrative organization based on the principles of local democracy and administrative and financial independence has never been, until the 2014 constitution, a political option in Tunisia. The order was to create a distorted «decentralized administration», stripped of all its political, legal and financial components, difficult to distinguish from a decentralized administration and appearing as an «extension of the center» belonging to the State, deriving its legitimacy from its loyalty to political power and not from local elements.

In conclusion, the approach adopted in Tunisia from the Ottoman era until the 2014 constitution, was characterized without interruption by the strengthening the center influence at the expense of that of the element. Indeed, the Tunisian revolution has provided, since 2011, a historic opportunity to establish a local administrative system that breaks with the previous model.

However, the results of the first municipal elections (2018) based on the 2014 constitution produced a fragmented local scene and partisan map, unable to establish stable municipal councils, politically coherent and able to manage local affairs, which led to a deepening of the general feeling of crisis. 

With the 2022 constitution, we note the gradual establishment of a new institutional configuration based on different constitutional and political balances at all national, regional, and local levels. As stipulated in the 2022 Constitution. It is evident that the new design of the local system aims to realize issues and trigger new dynamics.

Through this research project, we aspire to an in-depth analysis of all these main points and their sub-elements, particularly the relations between the center and the periphery, the place of the local in the Tunisian political and constitutional system, the role of local government in development, the renewal of the political system social basis and the redistribution of public money.