Since their back-to-back revolutions in January 2011, Tunisia and Egypt have wobbled along oddly parallel trial-and-er-ror paths. Yet even as Egypt has blundered serially into violence and seen democracy fail, Tunisia's trials have been largely peaceful and its democracy is still alive. Its politicians have chosen compromise over conflict, avoiding the brittle polarisation between Islamists and their critics that now so dangerously embitters Egypt. The latest Tunisian compromise was sealed in principle on October 5th when Nahda, the Islamist party that is Tunisia's strongest and has led a three-party coalition government for nearly two years, agreed to step down to make way for a temporary, technocrat-led administration. The details have yet to be fixed, but they include a three-week period of all-party talks leading to the formation of a caretaker cab- inet, the finalising of Tunisia's long-delayed new constitution, the revision of an electoral commission, and the holding of presidential and then parliamentary elections expected early next year.
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