How the dataset is built, and what it refuses to assert.
How to read this
DeepTunisia maps documented institutions, appointments and relationships in Tunisia between 1956 and 2026. It does not assume a single secret organisation controls the country. The defensible question is narrower and more interesting: which institutions, individuals and economic groups retain influence when the formal political regime changes, and which relationships are genuinely continuous rather than reconstructed after each rupture.
01 Method
The rule that matters most
An inference is never allowed to become a fact. Every claim is filed under one of four bases, and they never render identically. Merging them is precisely how a research project becomes a conspiracy chart.
- Documented 2237 claims
An official record, decree, gazette entry or primary document states this directly.
- Reported 3493 claims
One or more credible publications report it, with attribution. Not independently checked against a primary record.
- Inferred 70 claims
Nobody states this directly. It is reasoned from documented structure, and carries both the reasoning and what would falsify it.
- Unsubstantiated 15 claims
A claim that circulates without reliable evidence. Recorded so it can be examined, never presented as evidence.
The evidence control in the toolbar sets the floor. Raising it to documented-only is the most informative thing you can do here: large parts of the network simply dissolve, because much of what circulates about Tunisian power is reported interpretation rather than established record. Feeling that difference is worth more than any disclaimer.
Two of these categories carry extra obligations enforced by the build. An inferred claim must state its reasoning and what evidence would refute it, or the build warns. A claim at the weakest confidence grade must name who is making it, or the build fails outright. There is no way to slip an unattributed insinuation into this dataset.
Why unsubstantiated claims are kept
Most projects delete them. That is a mistake. Deleting a widely-held claim does not make it go away; it just means the map cannot show anyone why the popular account is wrong. So they are recorded, labelled, attributed to where they circulate, kept out of the graph by default, and paired with what the evidence actually shows. Several of the ones on record here are contradicted by this project's own data — that is the most useful thing a category like this can do.
02 Method
Dates are ranges, not points
Historical personnel records are rarely precise. A source may say an officer was appointed on 1 June 2018, or that he was in post by at least December 2025, or that he took over around 2017. Collapsing all three into one timestamp would invent precision the sources do not support.
So every span resolves to four values: earliest and latest possible start, earliest and latest possible end. On the Chronicle, the documented core of a tenure is drawn solid and the uncertain envelope is hatched. A bar that fades at its right edge means the officeholder was confirmed in post at that date and may well have continued; it does not mean they left.
One stated assumption: an open-ended <=2013 bound, meaning "in post by 2013, start unknown", is bounded to an eight-year window rather than opened back to 1956. Left unbounded it would silently place officers in every earlier era and inflate every tenure-based metric. Eight years is a plausible ceiling for a senior Tunisian command; the longest documented run in this dataset is about seven and a half.
03 Method
Successions are derived, not asserted
Nobody hand-maintains the command chains. They are computed from the position records at build time, which means a hole in a chain shows up as a hole. The build currently detects 126 gaps and 49 overlapping tenures, all published on the evidence page. Some gaps are real history: the post of Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces genuinely lapsed for roughly two decades. Others are missing records, and saying which is which is the research agenda.
04 Method
When sources disagree, the disagreement is the record
If one source dates a tenure to 2018 and another to 2019, this dataset does not pick the better-cited one and move on. It stores both, names who holds each, and states whether either was adopted and why. There are currently 78 recorded contradictions, including one where five different prison sentence lengths circulated across outlets for overlapping proceedings and the dataset declines to guess how many distinct cases there were.
05 Method
There is no single power score
Six indices are computed separately and shown side by side. Four are pure functions of the data. One is an editorial judgement, and one is basis-discounted evidenced influence; both are published below rather than buried in code.
- Formal authority. The constitutional and command weight of the most senior post held. From a published, editable weight table. An editorial judgement, openly stated.
- Proximity to the executive. How few institutional steps separate this person from the presidency. Computed: shortest path to the presidency node over documented edges only.
- Tenure and survival. Years in senior post, weighted by how many regime ruptures were survived in office. Computed purely from position intervals. The most defensible index here.
- Brokerage. How much this person connects parts of the network that would otherwise be separate. Computed: normalised betweenness centrality. Surfaces intermediaries over headline names.
- Cross-layer reach. How many of the analytical layers — security, political, economic, media, judicial, civil society, foreign — the person operates in. Computed from layer membership, as a share of the layers currently enabled. Narrowing the layer filter changes the denominator.
- Evidenced influence. How many evidenced routes of influence connect to this person, weighted by strength and basis. Computed from documented influence edges in the graph. Reads: how many evidenced routes. Not a judgement of who truly runs the country.
The rankings page offers weight sliders so you can combine them according to your own theory of how power works. The ordering changes when you do. That is the intended lesson: who counts as most powerful depends on what you decide to measure, and there is no view from nowhere.
A high brokerage score means the dataset records someone connecting otherwise separate networks. It is not evidence of wrongdoing, coordination or hidden control.
06 Method
What the layers mean
Seven analytical layers: security, political, economic, media, judicial, civil society, and foreign and international. Anyone carrying more than one is a candidate bridge, and bridges are what this project is hunting. The most overlooked category of power in Tunisia is probably not the richest businessman or the highest-ranking general, but whoever connects security, presidency, capital and political access. The network view puts each layer in a fixed lane so those crossings are visible as the edges that cross lanes, and the investigate page can enumerate them directly.
The foreign layer is not decoration. An atlas of Tunisian power containing only Tunisians reads as an indictment of Tunisians. External actors shape migration policy, macroeconomic policy, security assistance and civil society funding, and they are held to the same evidentiary standard as everyone else.
07 Method
Two structural facts worth stating plainly
The National Guard is not part of the armed forces. It sits under the Interior Ministry while performing military-style gendarmerie duties. Conflating the two makes the Tunisian security system look far more unified than it is, and it is a common error in secondary accounts.
The Chief of Staff of the Land Army is not the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. Secondary accounts routinely upgrade the former to a joint command that has existed for only about two years since 1991.
08 Method
The published authority weight table
These weights drive the formal authority index. They encode constitutional and command authority, not real-world influence, which is why a presidential security chief scores lower here than an interior minister even though reporting suggests the reverse may hold in practice. Keeping formal and reported power in separate columns rather than averaging them is the whole reason the table is this shape. Disagree with a number and the argument is about the number, which is how it should be.
| Weight | Office | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | President of the Republic | Presidency of the Republic |
| 85 | Grand Vizier | Beylical Government |
| 78 | Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces | Tunisian Armed Forces |
| 75 | Minister of the Interior | Ministry of the Interior |
| 72 | Head of the National Agency for Security and Defence Intelligence | National Agency for Security and Defence Intelligence |
| 70 | Head of Government | Head of Government |
| 68 | Director-General of National Security | Directorate-General of National Security |
| 66 | Director-General of Military Security | Military Security Directorate |
| 64 | Director-General Commander of the National Guard | National Guard |
| 62 | Minister of National Defence | Ministry of National Defence |
| 60 | Chief of Staff of the Land Army | Land Army |
| 60 | President of the Higher Authority for the Realisation of the Objectives of the Revolution | Higher Authority for the Realisation of the Objectives of the Revolution, Political Reform and Democratic Transition |
| 58 | National Security Adviser to the President | Office of the National Security Adviser |
| 56 | Director of the Presidential Cabinet | Presidency of the Republic |
| 55 | Speaker of Parliament | Parliament |
| 55 | Secretary of State for Security | Ministry of the Interior |
| 55 | Chief of Staff of the Air Force | Air Force |
| 55 | Chief of Staff of the Navy | Navy |
| 52 | Director-General of Public Security | Directorate-General of Public Security |
| 52 | Director-General of Presidential Security | Presidential Security |
| 50 | President of the Independent High Authority for Elections | Independent High Authority for Elections |
| 50 | Head of Presidential Security | Presidential Security |
| 50 | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Head of Government |
| 50 | Governor of the Central Bank | Central Bank of Tunisia |
| 50 | President of the Superior Council of the Judiciary | Superior Council of the Judiciary |
| 50 | Minister of State | Head of Government |
| 48 | Inspector-General of the Armed Forces | Tunisian Armed Forces |
| 48 | President of the Court of Cassation | Court of Cassation |
| 45 | President of the National Council of Regions and Districts | National Council of Regions and Districts |
| 45 | Minister of Religious Affairs | Ministry of Religious Affairs |
| 45 | President of Ennahda | Ennahda Movement |
| 45 | Minister of Finance | Ministry of Finance |
| 45 | President of UTICA | UTICA |
| 45 | Director-General of Customs | Directorate-General of Customs |
| 45 | Minister of Equipment and Housing | Ministry of Equipment and Housing |
| 45 | Minister of Economy and Planning | Head of Government |
| 45 | Minister of Education | Head of Government |
| 45 | President of the Chamber of Advisors | Chamber of Advisors |
| 44 | President of the Administrative Court | Administrative Court |
| 42 | Leader of Nidaa Tounes | Nidaa Tounes |
| 42 | Minister of Justice | Head of Government |
| 42 | President of the Audit Court | Audit Court |
| 42 | Directeur Général | STB |
| 42 | Président-Directeur Général | BNA |
| 42 | Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy | Head of Government |
| 40 | Secretary of State to the Prime Minister for Religious Affairs | Head of Government |
| 40 | Commander of the National Guard Special Unit | National Guard Special Unit |
| 40 | Secretary-General of the UGTT | UGTT |
| 40 | President of the Truth and Dignity Commission | Truth and Dignity Commission |
| 40 | Président-Directeur Général | Tunisair |
| 40 | Président-Directeur Général | STEG |
| 40 | Président-Directeur Général | BH Bank |
| 40 | Président-Directeur Général, CPG and GCT | Gafsa Phosphate Company |
| 40 | Minister of Social Affairs | Head of Government |
| 40 | Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research | Head of Government |
| 40 | Minister of Development and Regional Planning | Head of Government |
| 40 | Minister of Investment and International Cooperation | Head of Government |
| 40 | Minister of Communication | Head of Government |
| 38 | Leader of the Congress for the Republic | Congress for the Republic |
| 38 | Minister of Commerce | Head of Government |
| 38 | Minister of State Properties | Head of Government |
| 38 | Minister of Health | Ministry of Health |
| 38 | Président-Directeur Général | SNCFT |
| 38 | Président-Directeur Général | ETAP |
| 38 | Minister of Employment and Vocational Training | Head of Government |
| 38 | Minister of Planning and International Cooperation | Head of Government |
| 36 | Leader of the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties | Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties |
| 36 | Président-Directeur Général | SONEDE |
| 35 | Director of Religious Affairs | Head of Government |
| 35 | Minister of Tourism | Head of Government |
| 35 | Leader of Qalb Tounes | Qalb Tounes |
| 35 | Minister of Agriculture | Head of Government |
| 35 | President of the Public Television Establishment | Tunisian Television Broadcasting Establishment |
| 35 | President of the Bar Association | National Order of Lawyers of Tunisia |
| 35 | President of INLUCC | National Anti-Corruption Authority |
| 35 | Directeur Général | Tunisair |
| 35 | Président-Directeur Général | La Poste Tunisienne |
| 35 | Président-Directeur Général, Tunisie Telecom | Tunisie Telecom |
| 35 | Président-Directeur Général, CNSS | National Social Security Fund |
| 35 | President of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates | Association of Tunisian Magistrates |
| 35 | President-Director General, Office national de la propriété foncière | National Office of State Property |
| 35 | Minister of Transport | Head of Government |
| 35 | Minister of Communication Technologies | Head of Government |
| 35 | Minister in charge of Economic Affairs and Coordination | Head of Government |
| 35 | Minister of Local Affairs | Head of Government |
| 35 | Minister of Public Service and Governance | Head of Government |
| 35 | First Vice-President of the National Council of Regions and Districts | National Council of Regions and Districts |
| 35 | Second Vice-President of the National Council of Regions and Districts | National Council of Regions and Districts |
| 33 | Minister of the Environment | Head of Government |
| 32 | Leader of Tahya Tounes | Tahya Tounes |
| 32 | Leader of the Progressive Democratic Party | Progressive Democratic Party |
| 32 | Leader of the Democratic Current | Democratic Current |
| 30 | Leader of the Popular Petition | Popular Petition for Freedom, Justice and Development |
| 30 | Leader of the Free Patriotic Union | Free Patriotic Union |
| 30 | Leader of the Popular Front | Popular Front |
| 30 | Leader of the Dignity Coalition | Dignity Coalition |
| 30 | Principal, Mabrouk Group | Mabrouk Group |
| 30 | President of HAICA | High Independent Authority for Audiovisual Communication |
| 30 | Media Owner | Nessma TV |
| 30 | Owner of Mosaique FM | Mosaique FM |
| 30 | Minister of Human Rights | Head of Government |
| 30 | President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights | Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights |
| 30 | Directeur Général | ONAS |
| 30 | Chairman, Poulina Group Holding | Poulina Group Holding |
| 30 | President of UTAP | Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries |
| 30 | Mufti of the Republic | Office of the Mufti of the Republic |
| 30 | Governor of Tunis | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Ariana | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Ben Arous | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Manouba | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Nabeul | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Zaghouan | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Bizerte | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Béja | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Jendouba | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Kef | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Siliana | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Kairouan | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Kasserine | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Sidi Bouzid | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Sousse | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Monastir | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Mahdia | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Sfax | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Gafsa | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Tozeur | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Kébili | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Gabès | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Médenine | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Governor of Tataouine | Ministry of the Interior |
| 30 | Minister of Youth and Sports | Head of Government |
| 30 | Minister of the Family, Women, Children and the Elderly | Head of Government |
| 30 | Minister of Cultural Affairs | Head of Government |
| 30 | Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Parliament | Head of Government |
| 30 | Minister Delegate in charge of National Security | Head of Government |
| 28 | Leader of the Free Destourian Party | Free Destourian Party |
| 28 | Leader of Afek Tounes | Afek Tounes |
| 28 | Leader of the People's Movement | People's Movement |
| 28 | Owner of Hannibal TV | Hannibal TV |
| 28 | Owner of El Hiwar Ettounsi | El Hiwar Ettounsi |
| 28 | Minister in charge of Administrative Reform | Head of Government |
| 28 | Minister in charge of the General Secretariat of the Government | Head of Government |
| 28 | Minister in charge of Major National Projects | Head of Government |
| 28 | Minister in charge of Migration and Tunisians Abroad | Head of Government |
| 26 | Principal, Elloumi Group | Elloumi Group / COFICAB |
| 25 | Leader of the National Destourian Initiative | National Destourian Initiative |
| 25 | Leader of the Movement of Socialist Democrats | Movement of Socialist Democrats |
| 25 | Advisor at the Ministry of Justice | Head of Government |
| 25 | Judge | Judiciary |
| 25 | President of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women | Tunisian Association of Democratic Women |
| 25 | Director-General, Ooredoo Tunisia | Ooredoo Tunisia |
| 25 | President of CONECT | Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia |
| 25 | Minister Delegate | Head of Government |
| 25 | Minister in charge of the Social and Solidarity Economy | Head of Government |
| 24 | Owner, Nessma TV | Nessma TV |
| 24 | Owner of Zitouna TV | Zitouna TV |
| 24 | Owner of Attessia TV | Attessia TV |
| 22 | Leader of the Republican Party | Republican Party |
| 22 | Leader of Machrouu Tounes | Machrouu Tounes |
| 22 | Leader of Errahma | Errahma |
| 22 | Leader of the Tunisian Alternative | Tunisian Alternative |
| 22 | Leader of the Republican People's Union | Republican People's Union |
| 22 | Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior | Ministry of the Interior |
| 22 | Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs | Head of Government |
| 20 | Leader of the Democratic Alliance Party | Democratic Alliance Party |
| 20 | Leader of the Democratic and Social Union | Democratic and Social Union |
| 20 | President of I Watch | I Watch |
| 20 | Secretary of State to the Minister of Agriculture, in charge of water | Head of Government |
| 20 | Secretary of State to the Minister of Industry, in charge of the energy transition | Head of Government |
| 20 | Secretary of State to the Minister of Employment, in charge of community companies | Head of Government |
| 20 | Member of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People (2023 term) | Assembly of the Representatives of the People, 2023 term |
| 20 | Member of the National Constituent Assembly (2011-2014) | National Constituent Assembly (2011-2014) |
| 20 | Member of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People (2019 term) | Assembly of the Representatives of the People, second legislature (2019-2022) |
| 20 | Member of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People (2014 term) | Assembly of the Representatives of the People, first legislature (2014-2019) |
| 20 | Member of the National Constituent Assembly | National Constituent Assembly |
| 20 | Member of the National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 1st legislature) | National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 1st legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 2nd legislature) | National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 2nd legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 3rd legislature) | National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 3rd legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 4th legislature) | National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 4th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 5th legislature) | National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 5th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 6th legislature) | National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies, 6th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Deputies (7th legislature) | Chamber of Deputies (7th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Deputies (8th legislature) | Chamber of Deputies (8th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Deputies (9th legislature) | Chamber of Deputies (9th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Deputies (10th legislature) | Chamber of Deputies (10th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Deputies (11th legislature) | Chamber of Deputies (11th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Deputies (12th legislature) | Chamber of Deputies (12th legislature) |
| 20 | Member of the Chamber of Advisors | Chamber of Advisors |
| 20 | Member of the National Council of Regions and Districts | National Council of Regions and Districts |
| 18 | Leader of Aich Tounsi | Aich Tounsi |
| 18 | Founder of Nawaat | Nawaat |
| 15 | Editor-in-Chief of Leaders | Leaders |
| 15 | President of an NGO | Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights |
| 15 | Ambassador | Presidency of the Republic |
| 15 | Secretary-General of the Higher Council for Education | Higher Council for Education and Teaching |
| 10 | Journalist | La Presse de Tunisie |
| 10 | Executive Director of an NGO | Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights |
| 5 | Activist | Nawaat |
09 Method
Source hierarchy
Sources are ranked, and the rank is visible on every citation.
- Tier 1. Tunisian official decrees and gazette entries, government portals, official military records.
- Tier 2. Institutional research and peer-reviewed academic work.
- Tier 3. Established international journalism.
- Tier 4. Reputable regional media.
- Tier 5. Leads only. Never sufficient on its own, and used here purely as an index to be corroborated elsewhere.
Every citation carries an archive link. Tunisian media and gazette URLs rot quickly, and a source-backed site whose sources return 404 in two years is worthless.
10 Method
Machines propose, humans verify
The intended pipeline is discovery, extraction, entity resolution, evidence attachment and contradiction detection — all automatable — followed by human verification, which is not. Only the human step determines whether any of this is worth anything, so the review trail is stored per record and the coverage figure is published on the about page even though it is currently 52 of 8764. Publishing the real number is the only way that commitment means anything.
Note also what the investigate page does not do: it does not ask a language model to answer your question. Answers are computed by traversing the graph, and every row carries its sources. An assisted research layer can sit on top of that later, but it must never be what produces the answer.
11 Method
Corrections
The dataset is plain text under version control, so every factual change is a diff with a date. If something here is wrong, the useful correction is a primary source: a decree number, a gazette reference, an official biography, a corporate filing. The open questions are the current research agenda, and the fastest way to improve this map is to close one of them. The full graph is downloadable from the data page so the reasoning can be audited rather than trusted.
12 Method
What this is not
Not a list of people secretly running Tunisia. Not a claim that wealth implies corruption. Not an adjudication of the prosecutions recorded here: a sentence is a documented fact, the allegations behind it and the criticism of the proceedings are contested, and the site stores those as separate competing framings with attribution rather than picking a winner.