Arab Spring Falters Yet Tunisian Democracy Thrives

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Egypt is in a full-blownconstitutional crisis. Syria is in a borderline civil war. Yemenelected its former vice president -- who ran unopposed. Is theArab Spring dead? If not, where is it living?

And the winner is ... Tunisia, where it all started inDecember 2010 after a frustrated fruit-seller set himself onfire. As you read these words, a freely elected assembly isdrafting a new constitution from scratch. The coalitiongovernment has faced challenges, but it is functioning. A livelypress and an active political class, both inside the 217-seatconstituent assembly and outside it, are criticizing like crazy.Unions are pressuring the government to create more jobs, andthe government is trying to do what it can without throwingfiscal responsibility to the winds.