Can a consensus among the political elites hide and even aggravate polarisation at the mass level? The case of the Tunisian democratic parenthesis (2011-2021) challenges the idea that elite consensus always prevent mass polarisation. My latest article for Third World Quarterly shows how the Tunisian party system failed to channel the growing polarisation, built on territorial cleavages and the generational divide. The article is available in full open access: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2026.2661228 #politics