Administration of the Tunisian social security system: Reorganization and rationalization

The Tunisian system, which is set up on the basis of "a pluralist occupational model"¹ resulting from successive additions of occupational-type schemes, is very complex in structure. The proliferation of both the legal texts and the parties involved is so marked that it is not an exaggeration to refer to a multitude of subsystems which, taken together, are worthy of the title "system" only as a matter of convenience. Incompatibilities and the variety of logical structures are reflected in a lack of rationality and the need for an overall reform — which has been under discussion for some two decades but which was particularly intense starting in the early 1980s.² Enactment of Law No. 8686 of 1 September 1986, dealing with the reorganization of the social security funds, which was supposed to finalize this debate, paradoxically relaunched it and provoked renewed bitter arguments. The legislative action was received negatively by almost all parties concerned and the Law itself has never been applied. The ineffectiveness of this reform and the wait-and-see attitude of the public authorities have been due to the difficulties inherent in trying to master the elements of a global reform which would necessitate reorganization of the administrative bodies and harmonization of schemes. In treating these separately, the legislator condemned the reform to inadequacy or ineffectiveness. This has been the case owing to a series of major obstacles which have been felt all the more because the 1986 law turned out to be inappropriate to deal with its own objectives.