The Arab World’s Star Student

TUNISIA MARKED the seventh anniversary of its Jasmine Revolution in January with large protests in response to new austerity measures, similar to those that followed the self-immolation of a street vendor in December 2010 that first set the region on fire. This year’s protests also turned violent. Security forces arrested 930 demonstrators—a worrying sign that the only Arab country to manage a somewhat successful transition to democracy may be starting to unravel.

But Safwan Masri, a Columbia University scholar on education in the Arab world, sees it differently. For him, the protests are a sign that democracy is alive and well in Tunisia, as Tunisians use their newfound rights to hold their elected leaders accountable.

Masri’s new book, (Columbia University Press, 416 pp., $35), explores the factors that allowed the country to succeed, albeit in a still-tenuous way, where others have failed. He credits Tunisia’s progress to its size and location, its fairly homogenous population,