The Pictures and the Frame: Banknote Iconography and Bottom‐Up Nationalism in Pre‐ and Post‐Revolutionary Tunisia

ABSTRACT

‘Bottom‐up nationalism’—the belief that the nation is of the people, by the people and for the people—can serve as a powerful collective action frame for mass mobilization. We study the evolution of Tunisian dinar banknote iconography as an indicator of the institutionalization of bottom‐up nationalism before and after the Jasmine Revolution of 2010–2011. We employ a mixed‐methods strategy, including quantitative content analysis of the iconography of every banknote issued since the country's independence and qualitative key informant interviews to elucidate the Tunisian state's process of banknote iconography choice. The analysis reveals that Tunisian banknote iconography was increasingly espousing bottom‐up nationalist sentiments long before the Jasmine Revolution commenced. Our findings in the banknotes case are suggestive of a broader institutionalization of bottom‐up nationalism that could help explain the strength and resilience of Tunisians' revolutionary mobilization in the 2010s.