How Does Dialogue Really Take Place in a Democratic Transition?

Our aim in this paper is to examine and critically reflect the nature of the dialogic processes in the case of a national dialogue in a project of democracy construction. The case deals with development of a new democratic constitution subsequent to Tunisia's Arab Spring revolution of 2011, a process experienced and documented by the first author. We explore how dialogue did and did not take place in the constitutional process. Theoretical interest lies in the preconditions for dialogue, the fundamentals and functions of dialogue, and the questions of power and power asymmetries especially from the deliberative and emancipative perspectives. peerReviewed