A mixed-methods assessment of civil political culture during a democratic transition. The case of Tunisian civil society organisations

Democratisation theory has stressed the importance of active civil society participation (Schedler in J Democr 9: 91–107, 1998), (Diamond in Developing democracy: toward consolidation, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1999). This article uses Democratisation theory to argue that for civil society to have a positive impact on a state's democratisation process from a minimalist or electoral democracy to a pluralistic liberal system, it must have and exhibit a political culture conducive for supporting and promoting democratic ideals: a civic political culture (CPC). Welch’s conceptualisation of political culture (2013) determines that the latter manifests dualistically as discourse and practice. Therefore, this paper argues that to examine and test the extent to which a civil society’s political culture is democratic, a research approach that captures both the practises and discourses of political culture is essential. This article contributes to political culture research by advancing an effective application of Welch’s theory. Through a mixed-methods research design, this paper bridges the positivist-interpretivist methodological gap characteristic of political culture research. The application of the mixed-methods approach produces results with greater nuance and validity and provides evidence that post-2011 Tunisian civil society organisations (CSOs) are developing CPC.