A paradox of research into the Middle East and North Africa since the Arab Uprisings of 2010/11 is that while opinion polls consistently show that democracy is seen as the best form of government, even in countries where it has been adopted progress has been slow. The exception is Tunisia, which governments and academic analysts mostly consider to have achieved democratic status; however, many Tunisians themselves do not agree.
We have developed an innovative combination of discursive and cognitive interviewing, which permits description of informants’ own ways of talking about democracy and what can be expected of governments, to explore precisely what the terms mean, what other concepts they imply or entail and what worldview they express. An understanding of the language and conceptual/discursive framework of the community will be invaluable in understanding what, at base, they want and expect from government, and what must be done and said to foster social inclusion and empower citizens.