ABSTRACT
This article aims to examine Rachid al-Ghannoushi’s fundamental assumptions on the nature of politics. The first assumption of Ghannoushi’s political imagination is that he reduces politics to the state and a spesicif institutional ensemble and sees social/civil field as merely social service by exempting it from politics. Secondly, Ghannoushi envisions the state to be a neutral mechanism far from ideological struggles and conflicts. Thirdly, Ghannoushi claims that different politicial identities and demands comes to a consensual point of view at the end of the day, the differences among them are transitory and insignificant. Ghannoushi’s three given assumptions on the nature of politics are analysed through the notion of political. In this study, Ghannoushi is not discussed in the context of Nahda and the Islamic Movement in Tunusia where he is a pioneering figure and leader, but he is examined as a thinker on the development and experiences of Islamism and as an effective opinion leader being referred to on Islamism and Islamic Movements.